Fans of the premier Russian soccer team Zenit St. Petersburg are calling for a ban on gay and non-white players, an embarrassing development as Russia readies to host the World Cup in 2018.
In a proclamation released today, the team’s largest booster club, Landscrona, demanded Zenit put together an all-white, heterosexual team, as “dark-skinned players are all but forced down Zenit’s throat now” and gay players are “unworthy of our great city.”
All white, straight men? Are they playing soccer or joining the Republican Party?
Management at Zenit St. Petersburg say players are picked on their merit alone: “The team’s policy is aimed at development and integration into the world soccer community, and holds no archaic views.” Zenit head coach Luciano Spalletti was also quick to distance himself from the decree. “Tolerance, for me, is most of all the ability to understand and accept differences,” said Spalletti. “Furthermore, being tolerant means that you fight against any kind of stupidity.”
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Given St. Petersburg’s ban of gay “propaganda,” we’re thinking Spalletti encounters that kind of stupidity alot. The AP reports:
Zenit was the only top-flight Russian team without a black player until this summer, when it acquired Brazilian striker Hulk and Belgian midfielder Axel Witsel for 80 million euros ($105 million). French midfielder Yann M’Vila declined a move to the club in August after receiving death threats.
Fans insisted that “we are not racists and “For us the absence of black Zenit players is just an important tradition that underlines the team’s identity and nothing more.”
Russia has struggled to deal with racism and violence at its stadiums as it prepares to host the 2018 World Cup. Black players are frequently the targets of monkey chants and some, including Anzhi Makhachkala’s Robert Carlos and Christopher Samba, have had bananas thrown at them by fans.
You know, we have a hard enough time understanding why people care so much about sports in the first place.
Photo: Bettor.com
Hansolo
no blacks…sounds like Craigslist ad
2eo
Yeah.
“I’m not racist or homophobic but I just don’t want black people and homosexuals to even be alive”
Is what he actually meant to say, but like all racists and homophobes they lack the bottle for a confrontation.
2eo
Yeah.
“I’m not r@cist or homophobic but I just don’t want black people and homosexuals to even be alive”
Is what he actually meant to say, but like all r@cists and homophobes they lack the bottle for a confrontation.
Derek Williams
Stalin purged the nation of its intelligence.
hephaestion
Everyone with any brains or decency has left Russia. I used to love Russia; now I can only say “Fuck it. Russia is hopeless.”
1EqualityUSA
My cat chose this time, during this article, to hack up a hair-ball. Fitting. What a boring, damned world this would be if we were all the same. My girlie-Q’s agree. I’ve got to go clean up yack, before the stomach acids etch their way into the hardwood.
QJ201
I’m sure there is a pretty high correlation between racism and heterosexism, given both are are based in the assumed “superiority” of the dominant group.
Guillermo3
@2eo: Somehow,2eo,Whether racist or homophobes[and they definitely sound like both,eh?],I doug many Russians are lacking a bottle!
Burlington
I never understood why soccer atracts this kind of nasty people. There are something insane among people that fallow it.
Guillermo3
@Guillermo3: Not really replying to myself,but toYOU,”comment awaiting moderation”QUEERTY Censors:Fuck you,with glass shards.
Guillermo3
@2eo: @nd try,2eo:I doubt many Russians are,as you say,”lacking the bottle”.
Pete
Aren’t they aware that the father of Russian literature, Aleksandr Pushkin, was a quarter black?
Guillermo3
@Pete: Maybe they’d spent too much time in America,and thought Pushkin was a
quarterback.They’ve also probably forgotten that both Eisenstein and Tchaicovsky werewere GAY.
hyhybt
I’m just curious why their banner isn’t in Russian.
2eo
@hyhybt: It’s in Italian, they were playing Italy. The player Marcel Balotelli [a black Italian and a class player] was linked with a move to Zenit at the time, the sign indicates they don’t want him because he is black.
Eric Auerbach
@Pete: He was one eighth black. His great-grandfather, not his grandfather, came from Africa.
KARUADAM
Russian, NO place for you in the USA!!. Get out before is to late!. Kill all the fucking Russian.
Dionte
I fear it’s too late.
Guillermo3
@KARUADAM: Right,KARUADAM! And fucking learn English while you’re at it!!
hyhybt
@2eo: Thanks.
1EqualityUSA
Next to ban, players with Roman hands and Russian fingers.