“I am against double standards. Why some have all the rights while we are accused of all the evils. Why everyone always shouts that sport and politics should not be confused but, at the first occasion, when it comes to Russia, we completely forget this principle?” Asks the Zenit Saint Petersburg player in a message on Instagram.
After the attack on Ukraine by the Russian army, many international federations decided to ban Russian athletes from their competitions. This is the case of Fifa, which excluded Russia from the qualifying play-offs for the 2022 World Cup.
“I am against discrimination based on nationality. I am not ashamed to be Russian. I am proud to be Russian. the wickedness, filth and bile that is currently being poured over all Russians” and emphasizing that “war is horrible”.
The words of the Russian captain also appear as a response to the Ukrainian footballer of West Ham Andriy Yarmolenko who castigated Tuesday evening on the same network the silence of the Russian players by asking them the following question: “why are you sitting like idiots.. .and say nothing?”
Emphasizing that he did not want to start “not to comment on what is happening in Ukraine” because he is “not an expert in politics”, Dzyuba therefore reacted but not to express his solidarity with the victims of war.
To the “thousands of people who write humiliating and threatening messages”, the player declares: “it seems doubly strange to me to hear all this coming from people who have received much, much in their lives from Russia. It does not only reinforces the negative feeling,” said the player.
“PS: and to some of my little colleagues at work, who sit on their butts in their mansions in England and talk dirty things, it can’t affect us, we understand everything”, writes Dzyuba, who concludes his text with a “Peace and goodness to all!”
