Saturday 18 July 2015 13:09, UK
A racist incident that marred the opening match of the Russian Premier League season on Friday is to be investigated by FIFA.
Former Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong, now playing for FC Ufa, was apparently subjected to monkey chants in the 31st minute of the match against Spartak Moscow.
The Ghanaian was then sent off after raising a finger to the crowd in response.
"When the match was stopped, the fans started shouting 'monkey' at me," Frimpong said after the match ended in a 2-2 draw.
FIFA has confirmed it will ask the Russian Football Union (RFU) to provide details of the incident.
"We recently reinforced our fight against discrimination in football with the introduction of a new anti-discrimination monitoring system for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers," FIFA said in a statement.
"We believe that the hosting of the FIFA World Cup offers a great opportunity to say no to racism and any other form of discrimination and send a clear message to the world in this regards.”
The RFU's general secretary, Anatoly Vorobyov, confirmed his organisation would investigate the matter, and called on clubs to do more to combat racism.
"The Russian Football Union's disciplinary committee will look into the situation and what happened," he said.
"Racism is a disgusting thing, which we have not been able to fully stamp out. The virus that is racism is worse than the virus that is Ebola. Unfortunately it seems that we are unable to find a remedy for it.
"The clubs should introduce more effective scheme to work with the supporters surrounding this issue. The fight against racism should be a priority for work carried out by the RFU."
In a statement, the Russia 2018 Local Organising Committee said: "Racism has no place in the modern world, least of all anywhere near a football pitch.
"We are confident that the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, in particular, can act as a catalyst to positively change the mindset and behaviour for all members of football community over the next three years."
