By Andrew Warshaw
December 19 – Just when football authorities round the world are striving to eradicate homophobia and racism, supporters of Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg have demanded non-white and gay players be excluded from the team.
In a highly distasteful move – and a poor public relations exercise for the 2018 World Cup hosts – Zenit’s largest fans’ group, Landscrona, wrote in an open letter that black players are “being imposed on Zenit almost by force”.
And they added that gay players are “unworthy of our great city”.
“We object to representatives of sexual minorities playing for Zenit,” said the letter.
“We are not racists and for us, the lack of black players at Zenit is only an important tradition, which emphasises the identity of the club and nothing more.
“Zenit has its own identity in the world of football, along with a number of football clubs that have retained their own identity.
“As the most northern club of the major European cities, we have never been associated with Africa, South America or Australia
and Oceania.”
Zenit were the only top-flight Russian team without a black player until several signings last summer. Dietmar Beiersdorfer, the club’s director of sports, immediately went on the defensive by proclaiming players were selected “without any limitation regarding origin, religion or skin colour”.
The fans’ letter makes uncomfortable reading both for the organizers of the World Cup, who have always insisted – not entirely convincingly – that the country is no worse than others when it comes to outbreaks of racism, and for the likes of FIFA and UEFA.
Beiersdorfer attempted to play down the fans’ demands.
“We have absolutely no policy in Zenit of limiting our player selection in any superficial way,” he said.
Zenit’s Italian head coach, Luciano Spalletti denounced the supporters’ letter as “stupidity”.
“Tolerance for me is most of all the ability to understand and accept differences,” he said.
“I can personally assure you that I will do everything I can to help those who seek to explain to people what tolerance is, and the
need to respect other cultures and traditions.
“I think that Zenit has proven through its work that the club understands what tolerance is, and what it means to have tolerant behaviour. The team has gathered players from different countries and ethnic groups who work together to achieve a common goal.”
Black players in the Russian league have been the target of monkey chants this season while Anzhi Makhachkala’s English defender Chris Samba has had bananas thrown at him. Samba said Zenit fans “live in a different century” and admitted he was not surprised by their new demands.
Last year Zenit were sanctioned by the Russian Football Union after one of their fans offered Brazilian legend Roberto Carlos, also of Anzhi, a banana before a match between the two sides.
Zenit finished third in their Champions League group this season and dropped down into the Europa League for the rest of the campaign.
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