Sports Minister insists Russia's football racism blight is not "hopeless"

By David Gold

April 8 – Leading Russian football officials have denied the country has a particular problem with racism amid a spate of incidents since the league season resumed last month.

Just weeks into the season, Christopher Samba was racially abused during a game when his Anzhi Makhachkala team played Lokomotiv Moscow (Samba pictured below, front).

Last weekend, Spartak Moscow’s forward Emmanuel Emenike (pictured above) was racially abused by Zenit St Petersburg fans, a month after he suffered similar abuse against Dynamo Moscow.

On that occasion, Emenike made a gesture in retaliation, for which he received a suspended seasonal ban.

And this week, Torpedo Moscow were made to play their third game in two months behind closed doors as a result of racist abuse aimed at Shinnik Yaroslavl players.

That abuse came less than a month after their fans also abused Alania defender Dacosta Goore.

On top of this, a man who confessed to throwing a banana at Anzhi Makhachkala’s Brazilian full back Roberto Carlos when they played against Krylya Sovetov last year was let off without charge by police earlier this year.

Russia’s sports minister Vitaly Mutko (pictured below), while acknowledging the problem, insisted that there was much that could be done and was not overly concerned.

“I don’t see any hopelessness in it [the situation],” Mutko said.

“The process of preparing for the World Cup will force through solutions to these problems.”

“Fans, cities, stadiums and society will all get involved…and the championship itself, in the course of its preparations, will try to solve these issues one by one.”

Mutko has a particular interest in tackling the issue as the chair of the World Cup Organising Committee and a member of FIFA’s ruling Executive Committee.

With the event coming to Russia in 2018, racism is threatening to overshadow the country’s preparations for football’s biggest event.

Mutko also recently said that Russia was not the only country that had a problem with racism, and backed the announcement of a fund to tackle racism by Spartak Moscow owner Leonid Fedun this week.

“I agree with Fedun that clubs should take an active position,” he said.

“They shouldn’t shout at someone: ‘Hey you, officials, solve this problem, pass some law or something!’

“You write the laws, you study the experience.”

The Russian Football Union (RFU) and Premier League have unveiled a task force to tackle the issue of racism in the wake of this season’s incidents.

RFU President Sergey Fursenko defended the country’s clubs though and said: “I’m absolutely convinced that we don’t have a single club with a racist orientation, or that has showed racial intolerance”.

Current Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg are the only major Russian team never to have signed a black player, with former coach Dick Advocaat once saying that although he wanted to, fans would not accept them.

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