‘Chocolate’ tweet casts new racism shadow over Russia

RUSSIAN football was hit by yet another racism storm yesterday, after Spartak Moscow uploaded a video of black players training outside with the message: ‘See how chocolate melts in the sun.’ The Twitter message was also accompanied by chocolate bar emojis.

There is already controversy over the decision to give Russia the 2018 World Cup, with one anti-discriminatory official saying that the Spartak tweet shows a ‘shocking level of ignorance’ exists in the country.

Liverpool’s Rhian Brewster has spoken about his treatment during a youth game against Spartak in December, after which one Spartak player was charged with racially abusing him. In September, Liverpool team-mate Bobby Adekanye was racially abused by Spartak fans in another youth game.

‘Racism is one of the biggest issues Russia faces in the year they host the World Cup,’ said Piara Powar, the chief of football’s anti-discriminatory body Fare.

‘References like this show how some minorities are seen by some in the country.

‘For Russia’s biggest club to tolerate and then celebrate racist references of this kind is wrong.’