Foreign Players Would Leave Russia If Racism Was Rife, Says Sports Minister

Sports minister Vitaly Mutko claimed he had come across unpleasant sentiments when he attended a Newcastle United match three years ago and similar incidents were common in all the major football countries.

While Russia insisted the Lokomotiv banner had nothing to do with Odemwingie’s skin colour and highlighted the failure of FIFA inspectors to raise the issue of racism as proof that the country do not have a problem, Mutko admitted there are issues that need addressing.

“The English, Spanish clubs, all of us have problems,” he said, speaking at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium. “Several years ago we read that a motorcycle was raised to the highest tier in Italy and dropped.

"When I saw Hamburg, I was horrified sometimes. In Newcastle I bought my tickets and was among the fans and heard things. Sometimes there are problems like this with Russia. You can find something anywhere."

Mutko pointed out that 53 per cent of the players in the Russian Premier League are foreign and five per cent are from Africa, while leading players such as Brazil’s Vagner Love and Japan’s Keisuke Honda make their living playing for Lokomotiv’s city rivals, CSKA Moscow.

“A leading club like CSKA has three or four players from Africa,” the sports minister added. “If there was such a problem they would not have stayed here. Every club always has some problems in relationships between players and fans and the club itself.

“But this is not a paramount problem which would prevent Russia from hosting the bid. The problem about the Nigerian Peter Odemwingie and how the fans saw him has been mentioned. If there is something insulting I, myself, am ready to apologise for that.”

While not going so far as to admit that Russia has a racism issue, Mutko conceded that there have been high-level talks to address supporter behaviour at football matches.

He said: “I cannot say that we do not have problems with our fans. We have enough problems but we have taken serious discussions.

“Let me emphasise that there are many emotions in football. I would like to tell my English friends that these are our common problems. We must be united because football has no borders.

“There is no situation where one country has problems and other countries do not. The World Cup has 207 nations in the world. We must empathise with each other and not be speculating that some countries have more problems than others.

"During all matches there are always problems with the behaviour and I cannot see that this is a really big problem that cannot be resolved.”