As Europe suffers from various degrees of bitter Arctic cold, football players from Samara are all too eager to show their skills, regardless of weather conditions.
While —15 degrees Celsius was enough for Moscow Spartak to refuse to play a match, it was obviously not too cold for Kryliya Sovetov.
"[We] are totally displeased. [They are] cowards!" Anatoly Rozhkov, the team's coach, told a reporter for Championat.com
The Russian Cup quarterfinal match between the two teams was scheduled for February 28, but one hour before the start of the match, a joint commission with representatives from both teams, the judges and the match representatives, measured the temperature at the stadium at a brisk —15C. Spartak representatives decided this was cold enough to call off the match.
The Samara team's press service said that the rules allow the match to be postponed if one team says so, although Kryliya Sovetov were ready to play at the measured temperature. A new date will be determined and announced later. Spartak representatives have not yet commented on the situation.
