MOSCOW, June 26 (R-Sport) – Football authorities in Russia, set to host the 2018 World Cup, on Wednesday vowed a “tough” crackdown on racism, after FIFA’s anti-racism ambassador criticized the country’s record.
Russia has seen numerous incidents of racism on its football scene since the 2010 announcement that it would host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Monkey chants were heard at several league games last season and bananas have been used in incidents of racial abuse against foreign stars such as Roberto Carlos and Christopher Samba.
At a FIFA briefing on Tuesday, anti-racism ambassador Antony Baffoe was quoted by Brazilian media as saying there had been “many incidents” of racism in the Russian game and that the authorities must deploy star players in anti-racism initiatives “to raise awareness.”
Baffoe said that a racism-free World Cup in 2018 could have the same positive effect on how Russia is perceived as the 2006 tournament had for widely-praised host nation Germany.
In response, Russian Football Association (FA) vice-president Nikita Simonyan said on Wednesday that his organization was totally committed to fighting racism in football.
“Of course it is necessary to fight against racism in the very toughest way,” he told R-Sport. “Frankly, not just against racism, but against all the signs of nationalism in general. It’s the same thing.”
Simonyan, who is of Armenian heritage, said: “A person must be understood and accepted on his merits, whether as a player, an actor, a scientist, a composer or anything else,” adding: “His skin color is of absolutely no significance.”
The Russian parliament last week backed a bill that would introduce stadium bans of up to seven years for those convicted of committing a crime at a sports event. If the bill becomes law, it could conceivably be used to stop known race-hate offenders attending World Cup games.
