Russian Premier League

Few things are constant and guaranteed in the volatile world of football management—Tony Pulis donning a tracksuit, Harry Redknapp delivering a sermon from his car window on deadline day and Arsène Wenger insisting, “Sorry, I didn’t see it” are some of the exceptions.

It therefore came as little shock when René Meulensteen, the technical coach instrumental behind the development of Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester Utd, was relieved of his duties at Anzhi Makhachkala after just four games.

His tenure lasted 16 days before owner Suleiman Kerimov, supposedly tired of his overpaid and underachieving team, hit the eject button. It was another ugly stunt in football’s managerial circus.

Despite the job’s precarious nature, the employment ethics surrounding football management tend to escape serious scrutiny. The handsome pay and prestige attached to managing global superstars help sugarcoat the poisoned chalice.

Empirical studies confirm job instability. Dr. Susan Bridgewater from Warwick Business School made a forecast based on her 1992-2005 study of English football management trends. She predicted that average management tenure across the four leagues—17 months in 2005—would drop below 12 months by 2023.

Her prophecy is coming to fruition, with the English Championship proving to be an especially cruel mistress.

The League Managers’ Association places average tenure in the Championship at 1.14 seasons after a 2012-2013 campaign that saw 13 sackings and 6 resignations. The Venky’s turned Ewood Park into a farcical, managerial merry-go-round, firing two managers in the space of four months.

Volatility is a problem endemic on the continent as well.

Of Europe’s elite, Real Madrid (who parted ways with Vicente Del Bosque on the back of a Champions League triumph) and Inter Milan (6 managers since Mourinho’s departure in 2010) are the two worst offenders. Presidential politics in Spain and Italy, and oligarch influence in France and Russia can make a position untenable from the onset.

Today’s managers face a triple threat of player power, uncompromising ownership and media contempt conspiring to undermine their positions.

At Anzhi, Meulensteen was up against it from the start: A quarreling squad on exorbitant salaries and a fickle owner whose plans for the club were inextricably tied to his personal business dealings.

Media contempt is most prominent in England, where job security is unceremoniously parodied in the form of the “sack-race.” It’s a phenomenon started by the bookies and hijacked by the press. The media treatment of Blackburn’s Steve Kean in the months leading up to his forced resignation bordered on the sadistic—every week he was forced to quash rumours of his impending dismissal.

Is there any respite for the ailing role of gaffer?

Like all employees, they retain statutory employment rights, and are afforded protection in the form of tribunals and civil courts. Henning Berg was awarded £2.25 million by the Venky’s for a breach of contract.

This does little, however, to deter wealthy owners from arbitrary dismissals or to prevent the surreal scenario of a sacking on live television. Moreover, Bridgewater’s revelation that 49 percent of first-time managers in England only ever get that once chance in the professional game proves that financial compensation—which is capped at £74,200 for unfair dismissal through the Employment Tribunal—can be of scant consolation.

A more sustainable solution to upholding job security and integrity might be a managerial transfer window. It’s a view shared by Blackpool boss Paul Ince, who in reference to Michael Appleton’s short stint at Blackburn told BBC Lancashire, “Where's the protection if they're getting sacked after 67 days…it's OK that we can protect players because they're on contracts. We can sell them in January, and if they don't want to go, they stay. It should be exactly the same as a manager. It stops all the commotion and it makes sense.”

Aside from calls for a managerial transfer window, tentative attempts have been made to devise managerial performance analysis models to offer guidance for club owners.

Tom Markham from Sporting Intelligence is an advocate, claiming the likes of Martin Jol (Spurs) and Avram Grant (Chelsea) would have enjoyed a reprieve. But he accepts the model’s limitations when it comes to processing disruptive influences such as long-term injury to a key player or club administration, and adjusting to different expectation levels.

Regardless of the solution, we shouldn’t let the lucrative severance packages received by the likes of Mancini (Man City) and André Villas-Boas (Chelsea) obscure or diminish the volatile reality.

This is a reality in which the unsung hero—the René Meulensteen—is also a victim.

Patience is not infinite, and money is most certainly not. Both have a limited time span within which a desired outcome must be secured. 

In the paradigm of football the above statement is incredibly pertinent in relation to the profligacy of super-rich owners bankrolling success. From PSG and Monaco to Man City, Chelsea and Anzhi Makhachkala, monetary dependency on their eye-wateringly rich benefactors is a reality faced with increasing frequency.

With the onset of the new Financial Fair Play rules to govern participation in football’s elite competition, extravagant spending has been somewhat tempered. Yet, the rule is not infallible and loopholes exist, as proved by Man City and Monaco each spending over £100 million this summer.

Broken down to its most basic level, this patronage is the archetypal path of the underdog striving to overcome the odds. 

The clubs, to a certain degree, all fit a shared blueprint. The success has been enhanced as a result of its owners’ expenditure. 

Before their takeover’s these clubs were competitors rather than champions. Admittedly clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester City and PSG were already situated towards the upper echelons of their respective leagues, but their super-rich owners have elevated their success to a new level.

All have tasted success, nouveau-riche Monaco possibly excepted as their financial revolution has only come in the last couple of years. PSG won the French League this year for the first time since 1994. Manchester City’s 2011/12 title was their inaugural Premier League championship, and their first top division crown since 1968. Chelsea, since Roman Abramovich’s 2003 takeover, have won three league titles, numerous cups (four FA, two League) and their first ever Champions League crown.

It is true, money can and does buy success. All these clubs have been elevated into a position that, without their financial sponsorship, would have been unlikely.

Such dependency does leave the club in a situation where expectation is enhanced and managers and players are put under unfeasible pressure to succeed. The very definition of this came under Roman Abramovich’s notoriously trigger-happy regime as manager Roberto Di Matteo was fired just a few short months after delivering the club’s first Champions League.

The plight of Anzhi Makhachkala has put a unique slant on the role of a benefactor after its Russian billionaire owner’s patience simply ran out. 

Ordering a more conservative spending approach and radical cutbacks, including transfer-listing the entire squad, owner Suleyman Kerimov called time on his unequivocal financial backing.

Anzhi’s squad, littered with a roster of delectable talent including £31 million man Willian, and Cameroon superstar Samuel Eto’o, had transformed the team from also-rans to contenders. After a strong third-place finish last year, much was expected this time around as £50 million was invested into the squad in the offseason.

Yet, after failing to register a win in their first four games of the season, Kerimov’s patience simply evaporated; Anzhi were ordered into a more modest approach.

A club statement via The Mirror spoke of “a new and long-term development strategy”, that would involve “considerable deformations in the team's life and in the current structure of our club on the whole.”

The move, according to chairman Konstantin Remchukov, will look to slash the Russian club's annual wage budget from £120 million to £50 million.

While the imminent Anzhi fire-sale will not unduly panic fans of the other super-rich clubs, it is most certainly a warning shot.

Suleyman Kerimov is simply the first benefactor to lose patience in his project. Without his financial support, an imminent halving of the budget has been ordered—such was the club’s dependency on his millions.

Manchester City, PSG and Chelsea are all bigger sides than Anzhi, with larger profiles, fanbases and more success. They are, therefore, more autonomous and not quite as reliant on their owners' billions. However, if Abramovich became disillusioned, Chelsea would no longer operate as they do and City would be forced to regress significantly without Sheikh Mansour’s lavish spending.

Anzhi Makhachkala therefore serve as a warning shot. Without success, patience and ultimately finance is not eternal; these men will only wait so long.

Money can do most things in football, but it cannot always buy success...Just ask Anzhi Makhachkala.

Russian football received something of a shock on Wednesday as Anzhi Makhachkala owner Suleyman Kerimov made it known he was cutting the club off from its lavish funding, in favour of a more manageable approach.

Anton Kolodyazhnyy of Reuters.com reported how the budget to run the club would be cut by more than half, from around $180 million per year to just $50-70 million.

James Appell reports for the BBC that Anzhi took this course "having analysed the club's recent sporting results, the decision has been taken to work on a new long-term strategy for the club," suggesting that the owner was disappointed with the lack of success that his lavish spending brought to the Dagestan club.

While the club and it's players might be disappointed at the decision, it's a reminder of what can happen to the ever-growing number of hugely bankrolled clubs if their financial backers suddenly decide enough is enough.

So why didn't Anzhi's big spending yield bigger success?

Short term rise, but success takes an age

Kerimov took over Anzhi in 2011, with the team having finished 11th in Russia's 16-team top flight during the 2010 season.

The following campaign saw them just about finish in the top half at the end of the first league phase, when the division split in two, before a strong finish meant they ended the campaign in fifth place overall. The spending had started, which saw the likes of Jucilei, Joao Carlos, Diego Tardelli and Mbark Boussoufa arrive at the team, and helped propel them to a higher league finish.

Already an improvement of six places from the previous season, Anzhi and Kerimov of course wanted better from the following campaign.

An estimated combined £80 million was spent on the transfer fees of Samuel Eto'o, Chris Samba, Yuri Zhirkov, Balasz Dzsudzsak and Lacina Traore over the next two years as Anzhi continued to build a squad capable of challenging for honours. Anzhi also added Brazilian attacker Willian to their squad in January for a fee of around £31 million, and they were rewarded with a third-place finish in the Russian Premier League in the season just finished.

It's been a reasonable and respectable surge from 11th to third in just two and a half years under the Kerimov regime, but anything more substantial was always going to take at least that long, if not more.

This season Anzhi wanted to challenge for the league title.

Summer dealings included bringing Samba back for a second spell, adding Igor Denisov from key rivals Zenit St. Petersburg and signing up Aleksandr Kokorin from Dinamo Moscow after he scored 10 goals in 22 games last season, a total outlay of £45 million, with next to nothing coming back in from departures.

Rene Meulensteen was also appointed as new manager after Guus Hiddink's exit.

Four games into the season, Anzhi have drawn two and lost two, and the Anzhi experiment is over. They lie in 13th place with two points, and even though it is so early in the campaign, do not look a side ready to challenge Zenit and CSKA Moscow for the Russian Premier League title.

Kerimov wanted and expected the success to follow the money in rapid succession, but he needs only look at Roman Abramovich and Chelsea to realise that such huge investments do not pay off immediately. Having taken over in 2003, it took Abramovich and his spending until 2012 for Chelsea to finally lift the Champions League title—four times the span of the Kerimov era at Anzhi, who haven't even managed to qualify for that competition yet.

A domestic cup might have stayed Kerimov's attentions and ambitions a little longer—but even that prize was bitterly lost after CSKA Moscow beat Anzhi on penalties in the Russian Cup final in June.

Top rate pay without similar return of quality

It's all well and good splashing out humongous fees on star names, but for the footballing prizes to follow, the talent has to match the price tag.

While Eto'o, Denisov and others might be established internationals with long records of winning, Lacina Traore has far from proven himself a top European striker, yet Anzhi paid £16 million for him. Taking into account his two moves, Anzhi have spent £23 million on Samba, who was relegated and out of the team at QPR last season.

Too many of the deals, while offering big wages and the chance to compete for trophies, were shelling out top-rate sums of money on transfers while only bringing in second-tier players in return.

A large turnover of the squad in a short space of time also no doubt made it difficult for the side to grow together, while the club has also only recouped around £38 million in transfer fees after spending more than £205 million since 2010-11.

The players brought in for huge money were not worth the expenditure, and it has showed in numerous cases when the time came to sell those initial purchases back on. More will likely come to light in the coming transfer windows if Anzhi are forced to sell the high earners to make up for the lost income from Kerimov.

Management disorganisation

While Hiddink made a good impact in his time as manager, his "hand-picked replacement", according to the BBC, has lasted just 16 days.

Meulensteen becomes the fifth manager to depart under the Kerimov era, after Gadzhi Gadzhiev was dismissed eight months after the owner's arrival, Andrey Gordeev lasted just two months, and Yury Krasnozhan only three.

In addition, veteran left-back Roberto Carlos went from player to assistant caretaker to team director in a short space of time, before leaving for Sivasspor in Turkey in June because he was not promised a coaching role at the Russian club.

It's fair to say that the couple of years under Kerimov's reign have been tumultuous in a number of ways for Anzhi Makhachkala, and a club that has not been allowed to catch its breath or have ample time to properly challenge for major trophies suddenly now finds itself facing an altogether different future.

The Russian Premier League title that Kerimov wanted never arrived, and nor did Champions League football. Anzhi have gone from a bottom-half side to a top-three one in less than three years, but the greatest challenge now has changed.

It should have been to take the final steps over the next year or two to sustain themselves as a power domestically and win the league title.

Instead, they'll face a battle to manage the finances, try to stop the revolving door of management and possibly even survive a free-fall into the lower reaches of the league once more.

Follow @karlmatchett

Transfer fees and financial data from transfermarkt.co.uk

The rise of Anzhi Makhachkala has seen a Russian region previously renowned for conflict celebrating something special on a football field.

Situated in the Dagestan region of the country, near the war-torn Chechnya region, Makhachkala was described by BBC News as "the most dangerous place in Europe" in November of 2011.

But Anzhi are on the rise and will line up against Newcastle United in the Europa League last-16 first leg on Thursday with a renewed sense of pride, a world away from the devastation of previous years.

The club have only been in existence since 1991, when they were formed by ex-Dynamo Makhachkala player Magomed-Sultan Magomedov and entered the Dagestan League.

Anzhi entered the third tier of the Russian League in 1992 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and would reach the Premier Division in 1999.

The club first came to some European prominence in September of 2001, when then-Glasgow Rangers chairman Sir David Murray stopped his team from travelling to the Dagestan region for their UEFA Cup tie after Anzhi had finished fourth in the Russian Premier League.

Murray was concerned at the security in the area despite UEFA saying the match must go ahead. The Scottish club released a statement indicating their intention not to travel in September of 2001, as reported by the Daily Telegraph.

Within 24 hours of the statement, the atrocities committed on the World Trade Center in New York would underline Murray's concern about terrorist activities.

UEFA postponed the ties scheduled for Sept. 12 as a mark of respect and eventually agreed to Rangers playing Anzhi in a one-off tie in Warsaw, Poland.

Ten years later, Anzhi was bought by Dagestan multimillionaire businessman Suleyman Kerimov, who made an immediate impact when he persuaded Brazil international Roberto Carlos to join the club.

Later arrivals would include Yuri Zhirkov from Chelsea and Samuel Eto'o from Inter Milan. These were serious signals of intent from the club. The arrival of Guus Hiddink as manager in February 2012 was another sign that Anzhi meant business.

Hiddink might have left the club in November, but that has not halted the team's progress, and they are currently second in the Russian Premier League, two points behind CSKA Moscow.

With the financial muscle of Kerimov behind them, Anzhi are becoming a major power on the Russian scene with notable squad members such as Eto'o and Zhirkov supplemented by the arrivals of Lassana Diarra and Willian.

This Europa League campaign may not end in glory at the Amsterdam Arena in May, but there will be plenty of major clubs noting the rise of Anzhi.

In what can only be described as shocking comments, Anzhi Makachkala forward Samuel Eto'o has told of how he fears for his life from the Cameroon Football Associaton. The comments come after the African legend spoke about his conflict with the Cameroonian Football Federation.

The former Barcelona man told Cameroonian magazine Je Wanda (via ESPN):

The leaders of the FCF want to attack my life, they want to kill me. I live with a group of gendarmes (military forces) and one sleeping in front of my door. I do this not out of snobbery, but for my own safety.

[The federation] have swindled our money long enough. Instead of managing football for the general interest, they are only concerned with fictitious missions, first class travels and untraceable bank accounts in Europe.

The last few years haven't proved too promising for Cameroonian football. In 2012, they were bundled out of AFCON qualifying by Cape Verde. Les Lions Indomptables have also slipped down six places in the most recent FIFA rankings to 67th.

Eto'o's comments come just a week after the investigation into world-wide football match-fixing was announced. Personally, his comments regarding money prove quite alarming, especially considering the extent Eto'o is alleging people will go to in order to cover their tracks.

Since his move to Anzhi in Russia, Eto'o ha somewhat fallen off the footballing radar. He is currently working to be fit for his side's clash against Hannover in the Europa League.

The Cameroonian International further labelled those involved with the federation to be "incompetent and corrupt."

I must stress these are only allegations made by Eto'o—serious ones at that. There has not yet been any response from the Cameroonian Football Association.

Scary stuff.

One more big European transfer has been completed this week, and it's one which a lot of Premier League sides might end up ruing not taking a more positive stance on while they had their chance.

French midfielder Yann M'Vila completed his move (via the Independent) to Russian Premier League side Rubin Kazan on Wednesday, leaving the likes of Queens Park Rangers, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal to wonder if they might have made their interest a little more concrete and their offers a little more attractive.

The now-former Rennes central midfielder has been on the shortlist, if not an actual target, of the Gunners for at least two years. Recorded interest in him dates back some time, and even only 18 months ago Arsene Wenger was credited as being "close" to signing him for £22 million (via Daily Mail).

M'Vila has joined Rubin Kazan for just £10 million.

Capped more than 20 times by France at aged just 22, there is little doubt that M'Vila is an extraordinary talent, but his off-field behaviour has led to a suspension (from Yahoo.com) from his international team and apprehension from other managers in whether to take a chance on him.

Even so, given that his transfer market value has dropped by around 60 percent in little more than a year, it is incredible to think that there were not more teams who took a gamble on him.

At his best, M'Vila is a powerful yet refined midfield character, capable of anchoring the centre of the park from deep or playing in a more adventurous box-to-box role, utilising his physical capabilities.

He is not short of technique either, loving to play long, searching passes and change the tempo of the game.

As recently as Wednesday, the day before the transfer was announced, there was continuing interest from England (as per Sky Sports). Teams are clearly aware of his capabilities—and his short-comings—and it is widely known that he favoured a move to England over Russia.

Indeed, Zenit St. Petersburg were credited with an early interest in signing him, which was quickly rebuffed (via ITV.com). Perhaps no surprise when one considers what M'Vila might have faced from his own set of overly-selective supporters.

How many Premier League sides are blessed with such a high-quality midfield then, that they could afford to ignore a player who could feasibly be one of the biggest talents in Europe?

Arsenal have yet to rediscover any kind of their steel of old in midfield. Spurs have lost Sandro to a season-ending injury. Liverpool have, more than once, found out the cost of losing Lucas Leiva to a similarly long spell on the sidelines.

And Everton? Sunderland? The French Republic of Newcastle?

Are we to believe that even Manchester City, with Yaya Toure absent and Jack Rodwell perma-crocked, believe a cut-price M'Vila to be more risky than trying to retain their title with Gareth Barry and Javi Garcia as their only midfield options?

This is a £10 million, Champions League-standard central midfielder we're talking about. Yes, he has had problems, largely of his own making. And yes, he is paying for them one way or another.

But it remains staggering that after seeing his value plummet, not one club was brave enough to step up and offer him another chance—it's not as if he's kicked a ball boy, for goodness sake. Or an owl. Or another player. Or an official.

Had a Premier League team signed M'Vila and things had not worked out after a couple of seasons, if he failed to adapt or rediscover his best form, or even if the personal problems continued, the buying club would still have made their money back.

M'Vila would be only 25 at the end of the 2014-15 season, and with plenty of time left on any normal contract he could be sold for anything from £6 million upward—the quoted price that Premier League teams were willing to pay for him (per CityAM.com).

If he was to impress, they could treble their initial outlay in an instant within the same time frame. Or, of course, simply retain a top quality player.

Moving to Russia means M'Vila will continue to play in a competitive and growing domestic league, but Rubin Kazan are not one of the superpowers of the division. Sure, they came from nowhere to win the title in 2008 and 2009, but they finished outside of the European spots last season and are a relatively anonymous seventh this campaign.

A good run could see them take a Europa League spot again—they're only one point off at present—but they will not challenge the likes of Zenit, CSKA Moscow or Anzhi Makhachkala for a Champions League place.

Their top players include defender Cristian Ansaldi, midfielder Gokdeniz Karadeniz and the talented but unpredictable forward Salomon Rondon. M'Vila will add to their quality, quite significantly, but there are not enough top players in the squad to reach the top three again, as they last did in 2010.

What Rubin will get though is a solid player with a point to prove, time away from the focus of the French media and room to improve his own performances. The safe bet is on him performing well, showing that he has matured and attracting interest from overseas once more.

Don't be surprised then when English teams are linked with him once more in 18 months or two years—and when the price has once again inflated to double what Rubin have just splashed out on him.

Follow @karlmatchett

A letter composed by the largest supporter's firm for Russian club Zenit St. Petersburg asking for an all-white, all-heterosexual squad in the future caused quite a stir among the world football community, but for some players in Russia it's old news.

Congolese international and former Blackburn Rovers player Chris Samba currently plays for Anzhi Makhachkala, and has told many English news sources that he has been the target of many racial taunts by fans in the country that will host the 2018 World Cup. 

In a recent interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, Samba said:

I'm not surprised. Everybody knows Zenit supporters are no good and racist.

They are living in another century. It's a sad day for Russian football.

In this time we have different communities and countries that constitute teams. If they can't accept that then they are never going to progress.

This isn't Zenit St. Petersburg's first well-documented incident of fan-to-player abuse; back in March of 2011, the club was fined by the Russian Football Union after a fan tossed a banana at Anzhi Makhachkala's Brazilian left-back Roberto Carlos.  

BBC reports that three years earlier Zenit were fined nearly $60,000 after fans made monkey noises and threw bananas at black Marseille players. In 2011, representatives from the Landscrona fan group (the same group who wrote the open letter to the club this year) told BBC they did not want black players on the team.

According to the article, a person who was an employee of Zenit St. Petersburg at the time said, "We don't have a problem with black players. No black players—no problem."

As for Chris Samba, he says these reports of racism may have an ill effect on Russian football as a whole in preparation for the 2018 World Cup. He told the BBC:

The fact that a lot of players are going to Russia should be promoted. But if we're not welcome then it would be very difficult to change the mentality ahead of the World Cup.

Samba adds there are no plans for black players to boycott in the wake of the racist taunts, saying simply, "Black players should fight for the good ones—not the idiots." 

The idiots have crawled out of their hole again, spewing their nonsense to whomever will listen. The football club they supposedly support is almost taking the correct approach to the madness.

Almost.

On Monday, a group of Zenit Saint Petersburg supporters released a letter addressed to the two-time defending Russian Premier League champions. The supporters represent the club's largest fan group, and they hold extreme views about how the club should deal with race and sexuality.

Reuters reports:

The largest fan group of Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg have demanded the club refrain from buying black and gay players following turmoil surrounding the acquisition of Brazil striker Hulk.

"We're not racists but we see the absence of black players at Zenit as an important tradition," Zenit fan club Landscrona said in a letter, called the "Selection 12 manifesto," posted on its website (www.landscrona.ru) on Monday.

"It would allow Zenit to maintain the national identity of the club, which is the symbol of St Petersburg."

Zenit have been the only top club in Russia to have never signed an African player, while the northern city of St Petersburg is known to have a strong right-wing nationalist influence.

The letter also expressed opposition to having homosexuals in the squad. It called for the team to sign only players from "brotherly Slav nations."

According to the Reuters report, a spokesperson from Zenit said the club would not respond. That had changed by Tuesday.

Manager Luciano Spalletti later called the letter's sentiments "stupidity" and asked for tolerance (via BBC Sport). Dietmar Beiersdorfer, Zenit's director of sports, said (via FC-Zenit.ru) that the club has "absolutely no policy of limiting our selection by origin or skin color." 

Neither, however, condemned the fans outright. That's a mistake.

First, though, let's back up. The fans made at least one decent point. Football clubs can and should function as vital, active members of their local communities. A club can and should serve as a cornerstone and point of pride for the community it represents.

Likewise, a club can and should maintain physical ties to the community by recruiting homegrown players and through outreach programs that benefit those around them. A strong community, after all, can build tradition and a healthy relationship between club and supporters.

On that much, we can all agree. On that much, the idiot fans have a point, if that's actually what they meant.

The rest is not even worth the time it took to write.

No club would find value in giving maniacs like this a platform for their poison. As members of the media, we too should consider soberly whether publicizing such stupidity provides any news value. All of us—fans, writers, even players and managers—must decide whether these fans are worthy of real debate.

On this next point, I should be absolutely clear. This is not a denunciation of Zenit. Nor is this a call to limit free speech.

But if we can agree that a football club can serve as a cornerstone of its community, maybe we can agree on this as well. As a highly visible representative of its community, a club must also serve a leadership role. As such, refusing to condemn these racist, bigoted fans is not an option.

As two-time defending league champions, Zenit are currently the face of Russian club football. After investing heavily in Hulk and Axel Witsel last summer, Zenit signaled a new intent to break into Europe's elite. Any such move should bring with it a realization that Zenit cannot be associated with xenophobia and bigotry.

It's not enough to call for tolerance and recite platitudes about the club's all-inclusive recruiting policies. What's more, that stance is undermined by the fact that Zenit have never signed an African player.

On some level, these fans felt comfortable enough to write what they wrote. Zenit's monochromatic history must have played at least a small role in that. The longer these fans' views go unchallenged, the more outspoken they are likely to become.

As the club becomes an emerging force in European football, Zenit and its decision-makers have an obligation to take responsibility for their fans and their relationship with the larger world. In the face of bigotry, only full condemnation will suffice.

Follow @MikeCummings37