Racism in Russia

Being a great follower of the global game of soccer, I often pay attention to world issues and how that affects teams in certain countries. For example, the war in Iraq has prevented Iraq’s national team from playing a home game for over ten years. North Korea and South Korea had to play in China after North Korea declined to play the South Korean national anthem in their country (it is customary to play both anthems of the teams before games). Of course racism is a big issue in many countries still.

Zenit, a soccer team in Russia, has began a string of big purchases. They have bought a lot of foreign players in an attempt to become the very best in Russia and a contender in Europe’s Champions League. One of their purchases was a Brazilian forward that goes by the name Hulk. Many expected a giant welcoming and euphoria for Hulk, but what he got were threats. A group of Zenit supporters made public an announcement that they do not accept players of color nor gay players. They objected to Hulk’s transfer. They went on to place a fake bomb within the stadium with a note asking for Hulk’s removal. Hulk states that he has not had any issues of racism while in Europe despite being the recipient of racist chants on occasion. Hulk downplays the instances and continues to keep playing.

His attitude is much different than other players that are victimized by racism. While in Russia, Brazilian Roberto Carlos walked off the field for getting a banana thrown at him on two separate occasions. Prince Boateng took his team off the field completely after receiving monkey chants. Samuel Eto’o. Mario Balotelli, Marco Zorro, and others have stopped games when receiving racist chants.

Unfortunately we still see racism on soccer fields throughout Europe. Something that we don’t necessarily understand due to the way American sports are; where black athletes are the majority in some sports. Regardless of whether we understand or not, we must be aware that these things still happen elsewhere. Just type in “racism in soccer” on YouTube and take a look for yourself at how prevalent it is. A sad, but very real truth.

Greg Loza
KIN 577