Rotund, bespectacled, and with an encyclopaedic mind that has earned him the nickname “the Professor,” Amir Khuslyutdinov is about as far as you can get from the stereotypical image of a football lout.

Yet Khuslyutdinov, a native of Moscow and lifelong supporter of the city’s Spartak football club, is also probably one of the most respected figures in the secretive and violent world of Russian football hooliganism.

“I started in 1977 when I was 12 and my dad started taking me to Spartak matches,” he said in an interview at Spartak’s north Moscow training ground. “I only quit because it’s not very seemly for an old bloke like me to be fighting alongside youngsters and doing it better than them,” he laughed. “I keep fit – I’m still ready.”