Enormous, Real-Life Bear Oversees Kickoff Of Russian Soccer Match

Mascots are a common sight at soccer matches. Traditionally, these take the form of cute little children who escort the players onto the pitch to start a match. Sometimes, as was the case before a game in Russia this weekend, the cute little children are swapped out in favor of a huge fucking bear:

This circus bear, whose slave name is “Tim” per the BBC, was the guest of honor at Saturday’s third division match between Mashuk-KMV and Angusht. You can watch along in the video above as this once proud and ferocious beast, now looking sad and docile, is instructed by his master to stand and clap for the delight of the crowd before he holds the game ball and hands it over to the referee. A bizarre spectacle that would only make sense in the wild land that is Russia.

Poor old Tim wasn’t the only animal paraded about on the pitches of Russian soccer this weekend. An angry fan of a second division club decided to register his frustrations with his team’s manager by hurling a live rooster onto the pitch in the middle of a game:

The bird, which was accompanied onto the field with fan chants describing the manager in question as a “rooster,” was meant to communicate that the coach was a traitor, according to an article in RT.

If this is what a random weekend of lower league soccer in Russia has to offer, we can’t even imagine the chaos awaiting this summer’s World Cup.

[ BBC | RT]