Zenit St. Petersburg may face a fine and the disqualification of their stadium after a fan thrust a banana at former Real Madrid and Brazil defender Roberto Carlos, a Russian football official said on Tuesday.
The incident occurred when Carlos, as captain of visiting side Anzhi, was holding the Russian flag ahead of the first game of the season at Zenit’s Petrovsky stadium.
Ethics committee head Alu Alkhanov said it was just one of a series of similar incidents involving Zenit fans in recent years. However, he said the club would not be docked points.
Zenit made international headlines ahead of their 2008 UEFA Cup final against Glasgow Rangers when the club’s Dutch trainer Dick Advocaat reportedly gave an interview in which he said that the side's fans made it impossible for him to sign black players.
Zenit are the only major Russian side not to have had a black footballer.
Advocaat - now the manager of the Russian national side - later said that he had been misquoted, and the club denied operating a racist selection policy.
MOSCOW, March 22 (RIA Novosti)
