Racism prompts Cameroon player to leave Moscow club

Stephan Andre Bikey–a halfback for Moscow’s Lokomotiv soccer team–is threatening to leave the team because of racism, according to an August 8, 2006 report by the Regnum news agency. Mr. Bikey was quoted as saying that: “It’s hard to live here for a person with dark skin… The police won’t protect you. Once three people came after me on the street, but I was able to run away. You need a gun to defend yourself.” He was quick to say that Lokomotiv fans are not the problem, but that fans for other Russian soccer teams, especially Spartak, “direct a lot of negative emotions” towards him, motivated by racism.© www.fsumonitor.com