Yaya Toure stands firm in CSKA Moscow racism complaint after the Manchester City midfielder proclaims 'I'm not deaf'
Toure has called for anyone else who saw the abuse from the home fans to come forward after Ivory Coast team-mate Seydou Doumbia says he never made any comments over than what appeared in the club website
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Your support makes all the difference.Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has remained defiant in his complaint over his allegation of being racially abused by the CSKA Moscow fans by claiming “I am not deaf”.
Toure has called for anyone else to have seen the abuse to come forward, while Uefa have confirmed that they are investigating why referee Ovidiu Hategan failed to follow the protocol for dealing with such incidents, as well as charging the Russian club with “racist behaviour of their fans”.
Hategan is supposed to have stopped the game and asked for an announcement to be made to the Arena Khimki crowd asking for all racial chanting to cease immediately. Hategan would then have the power to delay or even cancel the game if the chanting persisted, but on Wednesday night he simply continued with play, failing to flag up the incident at all.
CSKA have pleaded their innocence, claiming to be “surprised and disappointed” by the allegations, and have said that the noises Toure heard must have been booing in an attempt to put off the opposition – in particular Edin Dzeko and Alvaro Negredo.
But Toure has stood firm and has also responded to his international team-mate Seydou Doumbia’s comments that have since been rejected by the striker himself, leading to confusion over what was actually said by the Ivory Coast forward.
Speaking to BBC Afrique as part of the World Service, Toure said: "I am not deaf. Other people must have seen it.
"We are all humans. It is not a nice feeling to go and play a football match, to bring joy to the people and to be called a monkey or to hear monkey noises. I don't look like a monkey.
"Doumbia is a young brother. Someone I admire who I have known a long time - we come from the same country.
"I don't want to say things that will put him in trouble but you can see a little bit the manipulation around all this.
"It is so pathetic and so sad to see things (racism) like that. I am ashamed to still have to talk about this subject."
25-year-old Doumbia was initially quoted as saying his international colleague had “obviously got excited” when he made the complaint about the monkey chanting, although he has today taken to his Facebook page to insist that he didn’t speak to anyone about the incident in the aftermath of the Champions League tie.
"I want to clarify my position after my Ivory Coast team-mate and friend Yaya Toure accused CSKA fans of racism,” Doumbia wrote.
"I want to insist that I did not talk to any journalist about these facts so none of the quotes you read in the press came from me."
Another post a few hours later saw Doumbia add: "I want to insist that I did not talk to any journalist about these facts, except just one from Sport-Express, whom I know well, so none of the quotes you read in other publications outside Russia came from me."
Although it appears a slight misinterpretation in taking the quotes from Sport-Express – with the same ones appearing on the CSKA website – it seems Doumbia is standing by his word.
Uefa president Michel Platini earlier today called for an internal investigation to determine why Hategan had failed to follow the agreed procedure when a racial complaint is made by a player.
"Further to the opening of disciplinary proceedings against CSKA Moscow following the alleged racist behaviour of some of their supporters at the Champions League match between CSKA and Manchester City on October 23, UEFA president Michel Platini has requested that the administration immediately conduct an internal investigation to understand why the three-step protocol established to deal with incidents of a racist nature was not implemented."
Uefa has announced that they will publish the findings of the investigation once the disciplinary case against the Russian club ends on October 30.
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