The Russian Football Union has banned a player for three matches for making an “insulting gesture” towards fans who racially abused him.
The FC Rostov midfielder Guélor Kanga, from Gabon, was targeted by Spartak Moscow fans during a Russian Premier League match on Thursday, and responded by showing them his middle finger.
The RFU said that, in addition to a three-match ban, Kanga was fined £600 for his “insulting gesture to fans”. Spartak were fined £800 for “the chanting by fans of insulting expressions” – a charge which usually refers to swearing, rather than the separate offence of racist chanting.
In September, Dynamo Moscow’s Congolese defender, Christopher Samba, was given a two-match ban in similar circumstances after Russian fans racially abused him.
Spartak and Rostov drew 1-1 at Moscow’s Otkrytie Arena, a 2018 World Cup venue. The Rostov coach, Igor Gamula, missed the fixture due to his own racism ban – a five-match suspension for the discriminatory comments he made about black players at his own club in November.
Gamula was sanctioned for telling reporters: “We’ve got enough black players, we’ve got six of the things and you want me to sign a seventh?” – and for making a reference to Ebola. He later said his comments had been misreported overseas, explaining: “The British press don’t grasp Russian humour.”
So far this season, CSKA Moscow have been punished for fan racism in the Champions League, while Spartak and Torpedo Moscow have faced racism charges in the Russian Premier League.
In October, Alexey Sorokin, the head of the Russia 2018 World Cup organising committee, denied the country had a serious problem, saying: “While there are individual outbreaks of these undesired tendencies, it cannot be regarded as a trend in our country.”
