Zenit fans protest at Malcolm signing with a racist manifesto and banners

Tanish Chachra | 05/08/2019
Zenit fans protest at Malcolm signing with a racist manifesto and banners

Zenit fans protest at Malcom signing from Barcelona with a horribly racist manifesto and banners during a match last night.

Malcolm came to Zenit Petersberg after completing a brief spell at Barcelona for a price of £36 million. The move by the Brazilian International did surprise many.

However, things got worse for Malcolm, as fans during a match last night refused to accept the 22-year-old forward because of his racial colour.

During Zenit’s game against Krasnodar in the Russian Premier League, their fans held up a banner tastelessly blasting the club for signing black players. The banner reads: “Thank you leadership for loyalty to traditions.”

Some Zenit fans have always shown resistance in altering the “traditions” and accepting diversity in the squad at the club. With the Landskrona fan association previously urging the hierarchy to not sign black players.

A lengthy manifesto has been posted by fans and is titled, ‘Zenit and black players’.

“The manifesto is in Russian but some of it has been transcribed and it is chilling. It reads: “We are not racist and for us the absence of black players is just an important tradition, emphasising 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.”

The manifesto goes on to say that the club should ‘let us be what we are’. “We have absolutely nothing against the inhabitants of these and any other continents, but at the same time we want players who are close in spirit to speak for Zenit.”

“Now, Zenit black football players are being forced almost by force, and this causes only a backlash. Let us be what we are.”

The manifesto further other alarming concepts, including scouting four key ‘breeding areas’ for potential young players. “In addition, it is fundamentally important for us that Zenit retain its own identity, and not become an average European team with a standard set of legionnaires.”

In other reports, it is being suggested that Malcolm might be resold by Zenut during the January transfer window, due to the massive protest, making it the most disgraceful transfer move to ever happen.

How twitter reacted

https://twitter.com/RuyGTR/status/1158296054816751616?s=20

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Barcelona Malcolm Zenit St. Petersburg

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

Don’t miss these