Russian fans throw bananas when Worldstars forward Anson Carter on the ice
posted December 12 @ 16:45, EST
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (CP) - Bananas were thrown by spectators when Worldstars forward Anson Carter was on the ice Sunday.
Twice during a 5-4 win over a Russian all-star team, the game officials had to retrieve a banana or a banana peel from the ice.
"It's no big deal," said Carter, who is black. "I'm not surprised - look around."
Carter, 30, who is from Toronto, is under contract to the NHL's Los Angeles Kings.
The incidents occurred on a day when the English-language St. Petersburg Times had a front page story about attacks on ethnic minorities in the city.
Such racial taunts have plagued European soccer in recent months.
In Spain, an anti-violence commission has asked the country's soccer federation to begin urgent disciplinary proceedings against national coach Luis Aragones, who made a racist comment about Arsenal's French striker Thierry Henry in October.
There was also racist abuse by Spanish fans at a Champions League game between Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen in late November, and black English players were jeered by Spanish fans in a friendly between the two countries in Madrid on Nov. 17.
In England, three men appeared in court last Thursday accused of racially taunting black soccer star Dwight Yorke during a Blackburn-Birmingham game last month.
Also last month, a man was fined 1,000 pounds ($2,220 Cdn) and banned from soccer grounds for the maximum five years for also racially taunting Yorke.
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