Advocaat: Racism not an issue May 13 2008
Zenit St Petersburg coach Dick Advocaat insists there will be no racist behaviour from the Russian supporters in Wednesday's UEFA Cup final against Rangers.
Zenit fans were accused of racial abuse against Marseille earlier in the competition and Advocaat was quoted as saying he could not sign black players for his club due to racism among their supporters.
UK Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe claimed a zero-tolerance approach to the final at the City of Manchester Stadium would mean any racist remarks from any of the 9,000 Zenit fans towards Gers' black players could see them end up in prison.
Advocaat assured Sutcliffe that he had nothing to worry about from the Russian club's faithful.
Reminded that he had allegedly said that he could not sign black players, the Dutchman retorted: "I didn't say that!
"There will be no problem at all. It has become an issue and I don't know why. It is not an issue at Zenit and there are black players in Russia.
"He (Sutcliffe) must have other concerns other than football. This is about a football match, not about colour."
As the questions persisted on the subject, Advocaat lost his cool momentarily, saying: "I have already answered questions on that. Let's just speak about the football."
The 60-year-old former Ibrox boss played down the numerical advantage the Scottish fans will have over their Russian counterparts.
An estimated 100,000 Light Blues supporters will travel to Manchester for the game with over 25,000 expected to be in the stadium at kick-off.
Advocaat said: "All the Rangers fans will not be in the stadium.
"We have 150 million people back in Russia supporting us - including the president."
He tried to play down the fact that his side, who hammered Bayern Munich 5-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals while Walter Smith's team scraped through on a penalty shoot-out against Fiorentina, are favourites in what will be their first European final.
"The build-up has been about Zenit being the favourites and I like that - I hope they are right," he said.
"But Rangers have reached the UEFA Cup final and the Scottish Cup final, they have won the League Cup and will hopefully win the SPL, so they must be a balanced side and they deserve respect in Scotland.
"We expect a good game with Zenit winning - I hope."