Former Barcelona winger, Malcom, becomes a victim of racism from Zenit Saint Petersburg supporters.
Malcom recently completed a move to Zenit Saint Petersburg from Barcelona. It was a move that needed to be made as he was not going to get the playing time he coveted with the Spanish champions. It was supposed to be the start of a new journey. One in which the player was excited to start.
But that excitement quickly turned to disappointment as upon his arrival, he was met with racist abuse from people who are purported to be supporters of the Russian club. These “supporters” release a banner in Zenit’s game against Krasnodar “RIP Selection 12” which is a reference to a set of rules the fans came up with as to how the club should be run. The fans released a statement saying that they were not racist but that signing Malcom does not go with their view of the club.
According to The Independent, they wrote, “We are not racist and for us the absence of black players is just an important tradition, emphasizing the identity of the club and nothing more. We, as the northernmost club of the major European cities, have never been mentally connected with Africa, however, as with South America or Australia or Oceania.”
As a result of the racism towards Malcom, there is now talk that Zenit are interested in selling the player less than a week or so after arriving. Marca report that the club may be looking to offload him come the January transfer window. Should this happen, it would be a further blight on Russian football as players dealing with racism from fans is nothing new. Brazilian striker, Hulk, and Belgium’s Axel Witsel suffered the same ordeal when they moved to Zenit.
Racism was a concern for FIFA when it came to the 2018 World Cup. Fortunately for them, the tournament went ahead without incident.
Simply calling something a “tradition” does not make something okay or worth doing. It also does not excuse the fact that they are opposing one of their own players because of the color of his skin. It seems like Zenit are leaning toward appeasing their fans which means Malcom’s time there may be brief. Regardless, it’s a terrible situation for the player and hopefully he can play without being subjected to any more abuse.