Russia and racism in football

I. Do LIW....it'll stop a lot of that racist sh it !

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Russians do not grow up in the same multi-cultural, integrated society as British people and have little history of such interactions, so of course racism would be a bigger problem there than in England or France. Hardly a reason to get on your high horse to pontificate. We heard this same fear-mongering when Poland and Ukraine hosted the Euros and they put together a good tournament and the Sochi Olympics was widely ridiculed before it even started and Russia put together a good tournament. Don't you Brits ever get tired of this hysteria? Serious question....
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I think that theres a difference between football fans and fans of skiing/bobsled.

But I take your point.

Harj is right.Russia is a racist toilet,towards foreigners of any colour or creed.

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At what,Forza??

It needs to be tackled in the schools, educate people about the world and you'll crush racism. That's what we've done here, the youth of today are far more integrated (apart of course from a few diehards and knuckledraggers).

Russia has not had the immigration we have and it frightens them. Until they live together they'll never understand...!

The more sport they see involving people of every colour and creed and the sooner they'll begin to accept it, for a super power they are still miles behind the west. And we ain't perfect.

Racism is a state of mind that takes time and experience to sort - in my opinion.

Spent years in the forces, travelled far and wide. Some of the stuff we'd say to locals when I think back now were embarrassing and cringeworthy. Never said with malice, but by modern (or any) standards well out of line. I certainly regret it now when I think back. It probably was "institutional racism" as the media like to portray things.

These days i'd not dream of uttering anything like it. Not because it's a taboo, but because I simply don't think it's right.

Think what i'm saying is that Russians are on a learning curve too. As said above, it's a predominantly "white" society. I'm sure they have some "racist" views and people, over time i'm sure that'll shrink.

To put some balance on this though, I've also lived and worked in Saudi. I, like colleagues, were on the regular receiving end of bigotry and racial insults. It wasn't discreet either - completely in your face. I've no doubt that if I were still there now, it'd be the same.

Thankfully the country I live in now is for the most part tolerant and accepting of others - probably too much so at times.

There were a lot of fears before the Euros in Ukraine and Poland and they seemed to pass off without major incident.

I think the World Cup will be fine.

I'd like to see more of a clampdown in everyday league and Euro competition matches though, it does seem that every week we hear of cases of abuse, it seems far too common.

At the weekend for example Balotelli mocked the Man Utd result and received loads of online racist abuse, an absolute shocking situation.

The perpetrators seem completely rabid and leave their brains at the door to post messages that are easily traceable back to their identities.

Well said,Sheldon.I am proud that Britain is perhaps too tolerant.Having lived in Japan for 12 years,I miss the diversity of Britain;Japan being the most homogeneous society on Earth.Here,the racism is directed against the Chinese and Koreans,but generally it's verbal rather than physical...unpleasant nonetheless.No society is perfect,ie devoid of racism,so we can never be complacent.That being said,I'm of the opinion that things in Britain have vastly improved over the past 40 years or so,an improvement which I hope will continue indefinitely.