Yaya Toure: Russian racism could lead black players to boycott 2018 World Cup
The Manchester City midfielder was dismayed to be the target for abuse during his side's win over CSKA Moscow
No respect: Yaya Toure slammed Russian fans' racial abuse
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Yaya Toure has warned that black players could boycott the 2018 World Cup if Russia does not tackle its racism problem. Toure was furious to be subjected to monkey taunts during Manchester City’s Champions League win over CSKA Moscow on Wednesday.
UEFA last night launched disciplinary action against the Russian champions, although a club spokesman claimed no rascist behaviour took place .
Africa will have at least five teams at the 2018 Finals and the Ivory Coast star claims black players need to be assured they will not be racially abused.
“Of
course they do,” said Toure. “It’s very important. Otherwise it we are
not confident coming to the World Cup in Russia, we don’t come.
“Of
course, it’s a problem here, it happens all the time. I played in
Ukraine, which was quite good, but they said some things as well.
“We
have come here and it is the same again. I don’t know why it happens in
football. I don’t know why you don’t get something like this in rugby
or handball or any other sport, it’s just football.”
The Kick It
Out anti-racism campaign have given Toure their full support and have
grave concerns about Russia staging the World Cup in five years’ time.
“Things
are not perfect in this country,” they said in a statement. “But this
type of abuse is a depressing throwback and raises questions around the
suitability of Russia as World Cup hosts.” Frustration: Toure was subjected to monkey taunts in Moscow
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Russia’s 2018 World Cup organising committee claim they are already taking steps to stamp out racism.
“The
2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia can act as a catalyst to positively
change the mindsets and behaviour across all involved in Russian
Football over the next four years,” they said in a statement.
CSKA dispute Toure’s claims and quoted their Ivory Coast striker Seydou Doumbia as accusing his compatriot of exaggeration.
“Having carefully studied the video of the game, we found no racist insults from fans of CSKA,” said the club in a statement.
Doumbia said: “I didn’t hear anything like that from the CSKA fans. So my Ivory Coast colleague is clearly exaggerating.”
FIFPro,
the worldwide players’union, claim UEFA ignored their own protocol when
Toure complained to referee Ovidiu Hategan by not warning the fans to
behave before taking the teams off.
FIFPro European president and
PFA deputy chief-executive Bobby Barnes said: “We’re very disappointed
that a clear agreed protocol which is designed to deal with these
situations was not effected.”
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