Players for the Russian football club FC Rostov are demanding that their coach, Igor Gamula (pictured below), be forced to step down, after he made racist comments to the media recently, according to the BBC.
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When Gamula was reportedly asked whether he would sign a Cameroonian player while speaking with Russian media outlets, instead of just responding that he would not, he said that his club had “enough dark-skinned players; we got six of the things.”
His comments prompted his players, including South African Siyanda Xulu (pictured above), to demand that the coach be fired.
Xulu’s agent Paul Mitchell said, “We just hope that Rostov as a club will make the necessary recommendations and in our view should get rid of the coach.
“I spoke with Siyanda this morning and I also spoke to the club. The intention was to meet with the president and get this situation sorted out, but not to train under this current coach.
“We’ve got to stand together and stamp racism out of football.”
On the worldwide response to Gamula’s comments, Mitchell added, “People around the world are absolutely disgusted.”
Since experiencing backlash, Gamula says he apologized to the team and then backpedaled on his inflammatory comments, “I’ve never divided players into good or bad, foreigners or Russians.”
In addition to Xulu, the other African players on the team come from Gabon, Mali, Cote D’Ivoire, and Angola.
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