September 24 – Yet another incident of racist abuse has hit Russian football which shows little sign of cutting out discrimination despite plenty of pledges to the contrary.
English defender Christopher Samba took the unusual step of asking not to go out for the second half of Monday’s Moscow derby between Dynamo and Torpedo due to the abuse he was receiving.
Dynamo won the game 3-1 and coach Stanislav Cherchesov initially tried to give the impression afterwards that Samba had been substituted because of a calf injury. But a Russian Football Union (RFU) representative said racist chants had been directed at the former Blackburn and Queens park rangers player, a version confirmed later by Dynamo
“I can confirm Samba felt offended with Torpedo fans and didn’t want to go on the pitch for the second half,” Dynamo vice-president Gennady Soloviev said. “That’s why he was replaced.”
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It is the second racist incident involving Samba in Russia after a fan threw a banana at him in March 2012 while he was playing for Anzhi Makhachkala. Samba picked up the banana and threw it back into the stands.
The RFU’s disciplinary committee will hold a hearing on the latest case on Thursday.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said at a handover ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, before the World Cup final in July, that he hoped the tournament, which Russia stages in 2018, would help the fight against racism. But a string of incidents keep occurring domestically and in European games.