Zenit St Petersburg's largest fan group have appealed to the club to not sign black or homosexual players.

The Russian football club, who were the 2008 UEFA winners are the only major side in the country that has never signed a player of African origin.
"We're not racists, and for us, we see the absence of black players at Zenit as an important tradition, which emphasises the identity of the club and nothing more," the letter, which was also posted on the fan club's website, reads

"We only want players from other brotherly Slav nations, such as Ukraine and Belarus as well as from the Baltic states and Scandinavia.

"We have the same mentality and historical and cultural background as these nations.

"We, as the most northern club of major European cities, have never been linked with Africa, nor South America, Australia or Oceania.

"We have absolutely nothing against the people of these or any other continents, but want Zenit players to be united in spirit and mentality.

"We do not understand the difference in public attitudes towards this notion. Why is Athletic Bilbao's approach, which involves only using players from their region, not accused of being racist?

"We fear that the club will take the path of Manchester City, Arsenal or Anzhi Makhachkala and many other clubs who buy players from around the world and no longer represent their region or city.

"For us it is important to preserve Zenit's identity. We do not want to be another beautiful and perhaps even profitable football project.

"Zenit has a special meaning for the residents of St Petersburg and the region; the city and the word 'Zenit' have become synonymous with each other."

The letter also called for the rejection of "sexual minorities", "football crooks", those who have publicly announced their addiction to cigarettes or alchohol, as well as calling for the introduction of a wage cap.

However, Zenit St Petersburg issued a statement in which they distanced themselves from the fans' letter, insisting the club does not support "archaic" values.


Excerpts from Zenith’s Official reply

"Zenit has always been distinguished by its tolerant approach to players of various nationalities and confessions, and has always had diversity in its side. Furthermore, our club has millions of fans from all continents of the world. St. Petersburg is an open city which historically has united various cultures.”

"Zenit invites players to the team exclusively thanks to their sporting qualities and achievements, not based on their nationality or skin colour.

"The club's policy is aimed at development and integration into the world football community. We do not support archaic values.

"We continue to be sure that fighting all manifestations of intolerance is the only principle for development of our club, football, and sports as a whole in the world."
For now we really do not advise any African player to try playing for the club as well as Hulk to embrace the transfer window as soon as possible.
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www.sportinferno.com/article/46/zenit-st-petersburg-fans-urge-club-not-to-sign-blacks-or-homosexuals/

Zambia captain Christopher Katongo has been
crowned the 2012 BBC African Footballer of the
year. He described the honor as ‘fantastic’ at a
ceremony in Lusaka, the country’s capital where
the award was merited.
A sizeable crowd turned up late Monday in Lusaka
to witness the presentation ceremony.
"To be among the top players who have won this
award, I will go to sleep with a smile on my face,”
Katongo told the BBC shortly after accepting the
award, witnessed by his French-born Coach Herve
Renard.
"I did my best and the people have spoken. That's
the beauty of this award. This is a fantastic
moment for me. I thank the people who voted for
me. It is something I will never forget in my
career.”
Katongo thanked his teammates, Zambians and
Africans in general for voting him best African
player of the year.
Katongo’s performance was well-reflected in the
2012 African Cup of Nations, where Zambia won
their first title in the continental cup.
Ivorien Yaya Toure and Didier Drogba were the
main nominees for this award alongside Katongo.
Yaya Toure was the 2011 winner of the award.

www.sportinferno.com/article/43/zambian-katongo-wins-bbc-african-footballer-award/

You could lay a fraud complaint to his bank. Make sure you use authentic documents and proof i.e payment teller and his website address which he uses to scam. The bank could freeze his account untill he comes to exonerate himself.

Sai Buhari

1. The foreign ads are probably as a result of traffic generated by adverts

2. You need to advertise more.

3. You will see your ad moe if fbook is advertising 2 u alone

Time to buy boxers.

Wise decision by FIFA in orde to absolve the organization of bias.

Are you guys sure it isn't police from another local govenment that did thee robbery.

If police uniform can be easily accessibble to the public then law and order in Nigeria has a long way to go.

Also it is good to hear nobody died

The 63-year old Arsenal coach admitted that the loss of some of his key players was regretful. Over the years Arsenal has been seen to build great players like Nasri, Robin Van Persie, Fabregas, Alex Song, etc. The Gunners' hopes of ending a seven-year trophy drought suffered an embarrassing blow on Tuesday night when they fell to a shock defeat against League Two side Bradford City on penalties in the Capital One Cup quarter-finals.

Arsene Wenger’s his plans to rebuild a team capable of competing for honours have been occluded by the departures of Van Persie. Nasri, Fabregas and Song in recent seasons.

"My regret is that we already had a great team two or three years ago which could compete on four fronts," he said.

"We just missed out in the Champions League against Barcelona, when we could have scored in the last minute and then we just missed out on the Premier League too.

"But you could feel the potential was there, and I thought, 'Okay, let's do this together'. Then the team split up, sometimes after five or six years work, it is frustrating, you have to start all over again.

"We have lost recent players earlier in their careers - to lose Van Persie, Fabregas, Nasri and [Alex] Song in just two years, it is a massive amount of potential, of course you worry."

http://www.sportinferno.com/article/40/wenger-admits-to-making-mistakes-selling-key-players/

Serbian Novak Djokovic and double Olympic gold medalist Serena Williams were named world champions by the International Tennis Federation.

“This has been another memorable year for our sport, highlighted by the most successful Olympic tennis event in history,” said the ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti

“In such a strong era for men’s tennis, it is a great achievement for Novak to retain his year-end No. 1 ranking, while on the women’s side Serena proved herself to be one of the finest competitors of all time.”

25-year-old Djokovic, who also received the ITF honor last year, defended his Australian Open title at the start of the season, and reached the finals of the French Open and U.S. Open. He lost in the Wimbledon semifinals to Swiss champion Roger Federer in July. Djokovic later beat Federer at the ATP World Tour Finals in London to take his score of tournament wins to six this season.

“It was very difficult to follow up such a successful season in 2011, but it was extremely satisfying to win another Grand Slam title, reach two other major finals and finish the year at No. 1,” Djokovic said.

Williams, 31, wins the award for the third time. She won her fifth Wimbledon singles championship in July, before taking the gold medal in the singles and doubles tournament with her sister Venus at the London Olympics a month later. In September, she captured her 15th major title at the U.S. Open, and won the year-end WTA Championships a month later to finish the season with a Tour-best seven titles.




http://www.sportinferno.com/article/41/itf-names-djokovic-and-serena-williams-world-champions-for-2012/

The truth about this might be that the guy @ Iroktv who also owns kuluya.com probably liases with Mfonobong to write great reviews about him. Look at all the forbes review about African IT stuff. It's all by the same person (mfonobong) and similar content with the Iroktv company.

Next tym for something like this, never pay into a personal account

This is serious. Scammers should be wary in these days of the internet. Their exploits can easily be published

Stop selling off players they took time to build

I guess it's Chitalu's bad as he didn't play for in acknowledged league

It's like the man of the house telling another man to put his house in order for him. It's obvious that Nigeria has become too complicated to handle by the present government. We have problems and we don't have a clue on their solution. Right now Borno has been a hot zone like Aleppo in Syria for close to a year now. A very discouraging situation.

The rate of kidnapping would soon make people devoid of political and miniisterial jobs.

Our government should be a bit sensitivee to citizens. To me okada ban is only appropriate for express roads. Entire Okada ban affects both okada riders and citizens

No president would like to be in charge in face of a war that he might probably lose.

Patrice Evra fears his coach, Alex Ferguson might give the whole team the boot if they fail to win the league.

When asked about last year’s title race, the 31-year-old told reporters: "I think Ferguson is going to sack everyone if we did that [again].
"No, I'm serious. It would not be funny, for the fans, for the players, for everyone.

"I remember what happened. We were eight points clear and in the end we lost the league."

On Sunday’s derby win against Manchester City, the French defender was keen to insist the importance of a victory as visitors to the Etihad Stadium.

"It was more important to win at City and give a sign out to them," he added.

"We also broke their record at home. Psychologically, it was really important to win against City."

Manchester united won Manchester city in their recent derby by 3 goals to two. Manchester United presently sits atop their league with a 6-point clear difference followed by Manchester City


http://www.sportinferno.com/article/37/evra-fears-ferguson-would-sack-the-whole-team/

Napoli went on trial for match-fixing on Monday and could be docked points after its former goalkeeper Matteo Gianello confessed to arranging the result of a match three years ago.



Gianello confessed to the court that he attempted to fix the match between Sampdoria and Napoli in May, 2010.

Sampdoria won the match 1-0 with a goal from current AC Milan player Giampaolo Pazzini in the 51st minute.

It was the final weekend of the season and the victory secured Sampdoria fourth place and a spot in Champions League qualifying.

Current Napoli captain Paolo Cannavaro (Brother of former Italy’s Captain) and defender Gianluca Grava were also on trial in front of the Italian football federation's disciplinary committee for allegedly failing to report the fix. Both players along with the club deny the match-fixing claim.

Nigeraian and Spartak Moscow Ace is also under investigation for a match-fixing claim during his time in Fernabache, Turkey, 2010-2011 season. It is stipulated that he might spend within 1-3 years behind bars for his involvement in the scandal despite being in Fernabache for only 6 weeks.

http://www.sportinferno.com/article/36/napolis-former-goalkeeper-testifies-to-match-fixing/

Yes Barcelona can do without Messi like they've been doing ever since. However, if Messi departs, one sure thing is that Barce won't be topping La Liga.

Deeola1: Delete ke? You want the "982415 members" count to reduce to 98K abi?

Lol, but this question is for real nau. I have like 5 Nairaland accounts I'll need to dissolve. Thanks to the banning policy that made me re-registr

Can GTpay work with Zencart too?

For reasons like this, I advise every corporate worker to try and be an entrepreneur in a way or the other.

I think it is the norm for Nigerian police/SSS to always denies ransom demands and payment. Look at most other kidnapping cases that have occured in the country.

Power of incumbency

It's unfortunate and bad to hear. But perhaps the kidnap of people in office might propel our government to take security more important. This insecurity trend is what all Nigerians suffer

Not being a tribalist here but I thiink young Easterners need to be sensitized. Their getting rich desperation needs to be cautioned. Im talking from experience here.

Boko Haram acquires submarine and apache helicopters...lol

The Nigerian justice system needs a complete redress