Racist and anti-gay chants have become more frequent in Russian soccer as the country prepares to host the World Cup, even as overall incidents of discrimination declined.
Victims include players from the French national team, who were targeted with monkey chants during a game against Russia in March, and also Liverpool youth player Bobby Adekanye, who was racially abused by Spartak Moscow supporters.
Last month, Nigeria defender Bryan Idowu, who was born and raised in Russia, told that some fans in the country viewed racist abuse as a tactic to distract opposing players. “I think most of them do that to put pressure on a player psychologically, maybe so he doesn’t want to keep playing,” he said. “It could just be because someone finds it funny.”