Russian soccer's discrimination a threat to World Cup: report

Russian football is plagued by a racist and far-right extremist fan culture that threatens the safety of visitors to the 2018 World Cup, according to a report provided to The Associated Press.

Researchers from the Moscow-based SOVA Center and the Fare network, which helps to prosecute racism cases for European football's governing body UEFA, highlighted more than 200 cases of discriminatory behaviour linked to Russian football over two seasons.

"It shows a really quite gruesome picture of a domestic league which is full of aspects of racism, xenophobia: The far-right play a significant role in the fan culture," Fare executive director Piara Powar said in an interview with the Associated Press.

The report collated dozens of cases where fans carried out campaigns and sold far-right merchandise to collect money for imprisoned neo-Nazis. It provides a detailed breakdown of discriminatory incidents around matches, pinpointing 72 displays of neo-Nazi symbols, 22 acts against people from the Caucasus region, which includes Dagestan and Chechnya, and five occasions of abuse against black people.

The report, which covers 2012-14, does not include an apparent rise in the targeting of black players being documented this season, Fare said.

In the week when the football world was focused on the rescheduling of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, this report — entitled "Time for Action"— underlines that the next World Cup will be held in Russia in three years' time, not the Middle East.

"Our hope in Russia in the lead up to 2018 is we get action taken to protect the safety of fans and of players," Powar added. "Players have already said they will walk off if they hear racism. That is a danger. We want that to be addressed in advance."

The Russian Football Union and World Cup 2018 organizers both declined to comment.

The report was sent on Friday to FIFA President Sepp Blatter. Without referencing the report's existence, a post on Blatter's Twitter account said on Friday: "In December, FIFA's (anti-discrimination) Task Force presented concrete action plan to tackle discrimination in build-up to 2018 World Cup."

Report calls for 3 measures

The report particularly highlights offensive conduct by fans of Moscow clubs CSKA, Dinamo, Lokomotiv and Spartak, and Zenit St. Petersburg. There is a prevalence of neo-Nazi and fascist symbols being adopted by far-right fan groups, including swastikas and Celtic crosses, and banners such as "White Pride World Wide."

The first systematic study of fan racism in Russian football shows the scope of the discriminatory behaviour that thrives at football despite President Vladimir Putin pledging to address the issue.

But the report argues that not enough is being done by Russian state and football authorities. The intelligence and insights gathered will now be handed over to world football's governing body by Powar, who sits on FIFA's anti-discrimination task force.

The report says "it will be difficult to ensure the safety of visitors" to the World Cup unless Russia implements a series of measures:

• apply sanctions for discriminatory conduct consistently
• create a plan to take on far-right groups,
• prioritize educating Russians about xenophobia and actively promote diversity in World Cup host cities.

"Russia needs to get a point where people can be assured if they go they won't be attacked," Powar said.