Racist, anti-gay chants on rise in Russia ahead of World Cup
Racist and anti-gay chants have become more common in Russian football as the country prepares to host the World Cup, even as overall incidents of discrimination declined.
Nineteen incidents of abusive chants were recorded this season, according to Fare Network and the Moscow-based Sova Center released on Wednesday. That compares to two cases the season before, and 10 the year before that. Victims included players from the French national team, who were targeted with monkey chants during a game against Russia in March, and Liverpool youth player Bobby Adekanye, who was racially abused by Spartak Moscow supporters.
Russian national team goalkeeper Guilherme Marinato, a naturalised citizen who was born in Brazil, was twice targeted by Spartak fans calling him a monkey. In another case, a regional governor told local media that the
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club his administration funds in the city of Vladivostok would not sign any black players.
Last month, Nigeria defender Bryan Idowu, who was born and raised in Russia said some fans in the country viewed racist abuse as a tactic to distract opposing players. “I think most of them do that to put pressure on a player psychologically, maybe so he doesn’t want to keep playing,” he said. “It could just be because someone finds it funny.”
Overall, cases of discrimination in Russian football fell to 80, the lowest since the 2013-14 season, according to Fare. Fare executive director Piara Powar said there is also a growing shift by far-right fan groups to racist chants because visual displays like banners are more easily tracked by cameras in stadiums.
“Some clubs have procedures in place. That leaves people free to chant things and that’s a far more difficult thing to police.”