AFRICAN ROULETTE
Every Tuesday in Phakaaathi
Stanton Fredericks has defended Russia in the face of fears over racist incidents at the upcoming 2018 Fifa World Cup.
Russian football has been involved in plenty of controversy over the years – Fifa fined the Russian Football Federation for racist chanting in a friendly against France as recently as March.
England leftback Danny Rose has now gone public in revealing that he had told his family not to travel to Russia for the World Cup.
Fredericks, however, moved from Kaizer Chiefs to play for FC Moscow in the Russian Premier League in 2004, and spent three years in Russia, his first experience of a culture outside of South Africa. Now 39, he has an empathetic view of the Russian people.
“The question hanging on everyone’s lips is “are they racist?” and I can say, having lived there about three years, Russian people are not racist,” Fredericks told Phakaaathi yesterday.
“You need to understand the landscape and the history of the people. We as South Africa, have had similar characteristics, living under a regime that was not favourable (apartheid). They were also under a regime (communism), and when they came out of that they had been exposed to very little of the outside world.
“When they came across a black person it was like the unknown. I remember I used to walk in the mall, my missus was fair in complexion, and sometimes people stared. When I had cornrows, they wanted to touch it. They had just not been exposed to it.
“Russians are not racist. I was born in South Africa and have experienced racism. It was the second country I have ever lived in and I really enjoyed my time there. Russian people are good people, they can come across as very hard and cold, but once I started speaking the language, I could understand the culture. They have a hard-working ethic, and one of extremes, they work hard, they love hard, and they drink hard! They have a strong culture and are an intelligent people.”
Fredericks, meanwhile, also gave his views on which African side he thinks will do best at the 2018 World Cup.
“Because Nigeria is so close to us, I would love Nigeria to do well, my heart is saying Nigeria, my football brain is telling me Morocco … because of their coach (Herve Renard) and his thing with Zambia and the Ivory Coast (Renard won the Africa Cup of Nations with both). The way Morocco are playing now – if they can manage to get out of the group, it is not impossible.” Fredericks does not, however, think Egypt will do so well, as he does not believe Mohamed Salah will be fully fit.
“When you have a shoulder injury you are never going to be at your max. If he does play defenders are going to know they just need to go in hard,” added Fredericks.