SOCCER-RUSSIA/RACISM Foreign soccer players saddened by racism in Russia

Record ID: 149267

  • Title: SOCCER-RUSSIA/RACISM Foreign soccer players saddened by racism in Russia
  • Date: 22nd July 2015
  • Summary: ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA (JULY 20, 2015) (REUTERS) FC ZENIT AND THE BRAZIL NATIONAL TEAM PLAYER, HULK, COMING OUT ON FIELD HULK LISTENING TO INTERPRETER (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) FC ZENIT AND BRAZIL NATIONAL TEAM PLAYER, HULK, SAYING (ACCORDING TO TRANSLATION): "When something like this happens, even if it is not in soccer, but in ordinary life it is always very sad. And it i
  • Embargoed: 6th August 2015 13:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAB1Q9ONCC4FST6P2EPDA4B1QYX
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Brazil and Zenit St Petersburg forward Hulk said on Monday (July 20) racist comments are made by spectators at almost every match played in Russia and he fears "gross and ugly" racism could mar the 2018 World Cup finals.
    Ghanaian midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong was subjected to monkey chants at a match last Friday (July 17) in Russia, which hosts the 2018 finals, but Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said the incident should not be "inflated into a big scandal". Hulk said, however, that it was "very sad".
    "When something like this happens, even if it is not in soccer, but in ordinary life it is always very sad. And it is a shame when something like this happens, because we know that we are all the same, we are people, and it cannot happen. But the saddest thing that happened yesterday - I did not see it, I knew it from the news - is that the other team did not come to Spartak and did not say anything about these racist actions, because we are in good relations with the Spartak team and this should not have happened," Hulk told reporters on Monday at a Zenit training session.
    Soccer's governing body FIFA has said it will ask the Russian Football Union to provide details of the incident in last Friday's match between Spartak Moscow and Ufa, after which Frimpong was sent off for raising a finger to the crowd.
    Hulk, whose real name is Givanildo Vieira de Souza, has also complained in the past of monkey chants and other racist abuse during matches in Russia.
    Argentina international Ezequiel Garay, who also plays for the Russian Premier League champions, echoed Hulk's concern about racism in Russia.
    "The main thing is to enjoy soccer, a beautiful kind of sport and one of the main ones in the world. Everyone lives his own life and each person's skin colour is just a skin colour, including myself. I am black and it bothers me at times," he said.
    President Vladimir Putin wants the 2018 finals to showcase Russia as a modern state and hopes to avoid the bad press that marred the run-up to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, which included protests about the treatment of homosexuals in Russia.
    Mutko appeared to try to play down the seriousness of last Friday's incident when he told TASS news agency: "I do not think that what surrounds this episode should become inflated into a big scandal."
    "We ourselves are talking too much about it," he said.
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