Zenit St Petersburg manager Dick Advocaat
Ahead of tonight's UEFA Cup final between Rangers and Zenit St Petersburg, Zenit manager Dick Advocaat has insisted there will be no racist behaviour from the club's fans.
Advocaat sparked controversy with his recent comments suggesting Zenit fans would not accept black players, and Kick It Out's chairman, Lord Ouseley, was moved to comment on the situation earlier this week.
Advocaat shrugged off the growing row over his apparent admission that his club's fans were racist and persistent accusations that they had abused Marseille's black players earlier in the competition, allegations UEFA is investigating.
"This is about a football match, not about colour," said Advocaat, who managed Rangers between 1998 and 2002. "There will be no problem at all. It has become an issue and I don't know why. It is not an issue at Zenit and there are black players in Russia."
The Dutchman's comments yesterday follow an interview with a Russian magazine in which he said he would like to sign black players but Zenit fans would not accept it. "I would be happy to sign anyone. But the fans don't like black players," he told the magazine ProSport. "Quite honestly, I do not understand how they could pay so much attention to skin colour. For me there's no difference between white, black or red. But they care."
Disquiet
Yesterday Advocaat claimed he had been misquoted, but disquiet over his remarks threatens to overshadow Zenit's first European final.
Kick It Out's chairman, Lord Herman Ouseley has stated that he feels the Russian clubs are 'complicit' in the issue. He said: "The problem with a lot of 'eastern bloc' football clubs is that they are complicit with racism by hiding behind what fans say they want.
"It's damaging to a European competition if a club is being restricted in this way. A lot of club chairmen in England in the 1970s and 1980s would have said that their fans didn't want black players and would boo them.
"But clubs have to be brave. You can change the culture, say that you're going to sign the best players, regardless of race. If clubs aren't prepared to do that, they are being complicit with racism."
Rangers fans
Football experts concede that racism is still a very real problem in Russia, with first division Zenit and Moscow's Khimik attracting strong far-right support.
However, Rangers, Zenit's opponents this evening, are also no strangers to accusations of abuse from fans. During a recent Old Firm derby, Rangers fans were seen taunting Celtic's Japanese midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura with gestures referring to the Second World War.
In addition, the long history of sectarianism between Rangers and Celtic continues unabated, despite the efforts of both clubs' officials.
From The Guardian
