London (AFP) – The captain of the Russian football team Artem Dzyuba denounced on Wednesday the “double standard” which, according to him, characterizes the sports sanctions decided against his country following the invasion of Ukraine.
” I am against double standards. Why some have all the rights while we are accused of all the evils. Why is everyone always shouting that sports and politics shouldn’t be confused but, at the first opportunity, when it comes to Russia, this principle is completely forgotten? “, asks the player of Zenit Saint-Petersburg in a message on Instagram.
After the attack on Ukraine by the Russian army, many international federations decided to ban Russian athletes from their competitions. This is the case of Fifa which excluded Russia from the qualifying play-offs for the 2022 World Cup.
” I am against discrimination based on nationality. I’m not ashamed to be Russian. I am proud to be Russian. And I don’t understand why athletes have to suffer now “, he writes, regretting” the wickedness, filth and bile that is currently being poured over all Russians and emphasizing that ” war is horrible “.
The words of the Russian captain also appear as a response to the Ukrainian footballer of West Ham Andriy Yarmolenko who castigated Tuesday evening on the same network the silence of the Russian players by asking them the following question: “ Why are you sitting like idiots… and saying nothing? »
Emphasizing that he did not want at first ” not (to) comment on what is happening in Ukraine » because he is not not a political expert Dzyuba therefore reacted, but not to express his solidarity with the victims of the war.
To ” thousands of people who write humiliating and threatening messages “, the player declares:” It seems doubly strange to me to hear all this coming from people who have received much, much in their lives from Russia. It only reinforces the negative feeling “says the player.
” PS : and to some of my little work colleagues, who sit on their butts in their mansions in England and talk dirty things, it can’t touch us, we understand everything “, writes Dzyuba, who concludes his text with a “ Peace and kindness to all ! »