Dubai: Cameroon star Samuel Eto'o has warned people not to blow the current racism row erupting in English football out of proportion, oddly adding that "racism doesn't really exist".
Three high-profile cases involving players and fans have blighted the British game in recent months.
Oldham Athletic's Tom Adeyemi suffered racist jeers from Liverpool fans last week in his side's FA Cup third-round tie.
It follows Liverpool striker Luis Suarez's eight match ban and £40,000 (Dh226,493) fine for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra. Meanwhile Chelsea's John Terry is awaiting his fate for a similar alleged incident involving comments made to QPR's Anton Ferdinand.
But Eto'o, currently in Dubai with new club FC Anzhi Makhachkala for a training camp from January 10 to 23, was eager to put things in perspective, despite Russian football suffering a spate of similar incidents.
Last June Eto'o's teammate Roberto Carlos threatened retirement after bananas were thrown at him from the stands. Eto'o's former national team colleague Andre Bikey even ended his contract at Lokomotiv Moscow because of taunts.
Eto'o told Gulf News: "Racism doesn't really exist, just ignorance. Unfortunately, some people haven't had the opportunity to travel outside their own country and meet people from different cultures, like I have."
Different cultures
"Some people don't understand different cultures as a result of this. Dubai is very fortunate that it has so many people here from different backgrounds and because of that people here are able to be more understanding of one another. People need to see beyond colour," he said.
Racism in Spain, where Eto'o played for Real Madrid, Mallorca and Barcelona between 1997 and 2009, became so bad that the record four-time African Player of the Year walked off the pitch in 2006 and stopped taking his family to the games. Similar incidents continued in Italy when he played for Inter.
Anzhi Makhachkala will play the Iraq U23 team on January 16 at Al Nasr Stadium from 7pm. On January 15 FC Bunyodkor will play Wolfsburg at The Sevens from 7pm.
