Saturday 21 July 2018 09:46, UK
Russian third division side Torpedo Moscow deny claims they have cancelled defender Erving Botaka-Yobama's contract because he is black.
Fans protested after the club announced they had signed Botaka-Yobama, who is of Russian and Congolese descent, last Saturday.
Torpedo insist the deal for the 19-year-old, a former youth player at the club, was called off due to financial reasons.
"Skin colour is never a criterion when selecting a player," the Russian club said in a statement.
"Racism has no right to exist. We adhere to this point of view."
Torpedo have said that rivals and the selling club Lokomotiv-Kazanka Moscow were demanding a transfer fee - causing the deal to collapse.
Earlier in the week, a group of fans known as the Zapad-5 Ultras wrote on Russian social media site Vkontakte: "Black may be one of our club's colours, but we only want whites in our ranks."
Head of the All-Russian Union of Footballers Alexander Zotov criticised those comments, adding that they do not represent all supporters in the country.
He said: "There have been changes in the minds of people after the World Cup but there is still a group of idiots.
"I read a lot of statements about the football player. Some were openly racist. These people with limited horizons exist in any country. We saw how open our society and people are [during the World Cup].
"There are fans of Torpedo who are normal, and do not welcome the behaviour of that group in relation to Botaka."
