FIFA has condemned Spartak Moscow over Saturday’s “racist” tweet about its own players which caused a social media storm.
The Russian side posted a message on Twitter and captioned a video of some of their black players as “see how the chocolates melt in the sun” during a warm-weather training camp in Dubai – it was later deleted after being visible for a number of hours.
Spartak quickly faced widespread criticism and a statement from Kick It Out read: “This social media post from the official account of Spartak Moscow only continues to highlight the prejudices towards black people in Russia.
“With the World Cup only a few months away, it is a reminder that Russia, as with the whole of football, has significant work to do to eradicate racism of all forms from the game.”
FIFA issued a similarly critical statement to Sky Sports News on Sunday, but said any punishment would have to come internally from the Russian Football Union.
It reads: “FIFA condemns the message published on Twitter account of Spartak Moscow. As said many times, any form of discrimination on or outside the field is unacceptable and has no place in football.
“As to the handling of this matter, this falls under the responsibility of the relevant national body.
“Please note that at its meeting in May 2017, the FIFA Council emphasised that member associations and referees should be ready to adopt a strict policy to deal with incidents of racist nature.
“Furthermore, it should also be noted that as from the FIFA Confederations Cup 2017, FIFA has adopted a three-step procedure in case of discriminatory incidents and also deploys anti-discrimination observers at all matches in official tournaments.”
The club’s fans were also found guilty of abusing Liverpool’s Bobby Adekanye during a Youth League fixture in Russia.