Shocking fine for Spartak Moscow man over ‘racist’ tweet

The Russian Football Union (RFU) has fined Spartak Moscow’s head of media for a tweet with “racist” content.

Leonid Trakhtenberg has been fined just 20,000 rubles (£253) after a video of some of three of the club’s black players training in the sun was accompanied with a message in Russian.

The tweet, posed on January 13, translated as “see how the chocolates melt in the sun”, along with some sunshine and chocolate emojis.

Apparently, the post was made by a player, Georgi Dzhikiya, who was let off with a reprimand, while Trakhtenberg was deemed to be responsible for the account with almost 700,000 followers.

The club deleted the tweet and then posted a video of Fernando denying there was any racism at the club.

FIFA said it “condemns the message published on the Twitter account of Spartak Moscow”.

Kick It Out said earlier this month: “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.”