Story By: Gheorghi Caraseni, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Golder’s News And Sport
Russian international Dmitri Tarasov has caused outrage after posting this picture online where he appears to call his Korean barber “coronavirus”.
Former Lokomotiv Moscow midfielder Tarasov, 32, posted the controversial picture with barber Denis Lee, reportedly originally from Korea, for his army of 1 million followers.
The picture shows Tarasov sitting in a barber’s chair with a Louis Vuitton barber cape draped over him.
Lee stands next to him and is seen smiling while he cuts at the footballer’s sides as the word ‘coronavirus’ is written below with several arrows pointing towards him.
Local media report the picture has caused outrage among Russians and has lead to a statement by the ‘Football Against Racism in Europe’ organisation.
The statement read: “The photo posted by Tarasov, in our opinion, is a racist insult. In the situation of fighting the epidemic, such comparisons are xenophobic.
“Unfortunately, we are increasingly seeing similar messages on social networks and the media regarding players from Asia.
“The Russian Football Union (RFU) may take appropriate sanctions against the player in accordance with disciplinary rules, we need to contact them for details.”
Lee later claimed it was actually his idea to take the picture and that the two are good friends in a post of himself and Tarasov posing together.
Lee also said: “People who think it’s racist that we joked about the coronavirus subject are stupid! We were just having fun.”
He went on to say the people that were offended by the picture have “poor sense of humour” and they “they made it a bigger deal themselves”.
It is unclear if Tarasov has been sanctioned by the RFU.
Tarasov recently signed with FC Rubin Kazan after his contract expired with Lokomotiv in June 2019.
Rubin Kazan are 13th in the Russian Premier League and are set to play FC Tambov on 1st March.
The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.
