Less than three days after scoring his first goal for new club West Brom of England, Osaze Odemwingie has been hit by a remark that might come across as been racist by a lot of people in the sporting world.
At the heart of the race storm is Russia, one of the bidding nations for the 2018 World Cup. Yesterday images emerged showing fans of Lokomotiv Moscow holding up a banner saying; THANK YOU WESTBROM with a banana fruit in the middle of the statement.

Officials in Russia have been quick to play down the gaffe. Their response was that in Russia the banana is used to symbolise failure. Rival bidding nation, England has been quick to criticise the Russians for having their fans behave in an inappropriate manner. English Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said: “Racism has no place in football or sport in general. If there is evidence that it has taken place I’d hope the relevant authorities would take a tough line.”

A source from Russian embassy in London said: “So far we don’t see any reasons to dramatise this, since in Russian student slang ‘to get a banana’ means to fail a test, and Odemwingie was seen by many fans in Moscow as not perhaps the best performer. But it’s their own judgment.”

Osaze had suffered a dry spell in last month’s with Russian Club Lokomotiv Moscow and some sections of the Russian press had claimed that his lack of bite in front of goal was down to the hostile nature of the fans at his former club.

Just like England this is not the first time Russia has been involved in race rows. In the 2008, Ronald Zubar, Andre Ayew and Charles Kabhore of Marsielle FC of France were subjects of racist slurs from fans of Zenit Saint Petersburg of Russia. Cameroonian defender Andre Bikey was also subjected to racist chants during his time at Lokomotiv Moscow.

A six-man FIFA delegation visited Russia last week just days before a banner showing an allegedly racist remark been directed at Osaze Odemwingie.

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