The largest supporters' club the Russian football champion, Zenit St Petersburg, have demanded that the team only signs up white, heterosexual players. It denied being racist but said the absence of black players was as they put it an important tradition of Zenit. It had none until the season. The team coach, Luciano Spaletti said the authors didn't represent the majority of Zenit fans and the team would support work against racism. But the BBC correspondent says the fan's statement has generated the kind of negative publicity that the Russia as the organizer of the 2016 World Cup could do without.
俄罗斯足球冠军队,彼得堡泽尼特队的球迷俱乐部要求球队只能签约异性恋的白人球员。俱乐部否认自己是种族主义者,但是他们将球队没有黑人球员当成是泽尼特队的重要传统。实际上,直到这个赛季,并没有黑人球员。该队教练Luciano Spalettis认为,发出这一要求的人并不能代表泽尼特队的绝大多数球迷的意见,球队不会支持种族主义。BBC通讯记者说,对于筹办2016年世界杯足球赛的俄罗斯,这份球迷申明产生了本不该有的负面影响。
An eighteenth-century Chinese imperial seal has been sold at an auction in Paris for almost $1.5 million despite threats of legal action by a Chinese organization. The association for the protection of Chinese art in Europe had demanded that the seal be withdrawn from the auction because it said it was stolen in 1860 when British and French troops ransacked Beijing Summer Palace. But the auctioneers told the BBC the seal was used in a library in the Forbidden City some 20 kilometers from the palace.