There are few more offensive elements of football than the plague that is racial abuse
That’s why it comes as such a shock to hear somebody in power claiming that one of the victims of such abuse needs to ‘keep himself under control’.
Artur Grigoryants, head of the Russian FA’s disciplinary committee, has claimed that it is right to punish the ‘so-called, in inverted commas, victims’ if they respond to the abuse by gesturing to the offending supporters.
He was speaking in relation to the suspension handed down to Christopher Samba, who was banned for two games after responding to monkey chants in a game between Dynamo Moscow and Torpedo Moscow.
Grigoryants referred to Samba’s response as an ‘unpleasant gesture’ which was ‘a punishable offence’.
Speaking to Associated Press, he also said: ‘Yes, there was a provocation from the stands but a player should keep himself under control and so we decided to punish the club for the occurrence and we punished Samba.’
Russian football has long been associated with racist behaviour from the terraces but Grigoryants believes that Russia has just ‘rare cases of racism’ and that ‘we’re on the way to liquidating it completely’.
Not the most thoughtful or sensitive comments.
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