African player says he faced racial abuse in Russian game

MOSCOW (AP) — An African footballer in the Russian Premier League says he faced racial abuse from an opponent during a soccer game.

Defender Sekou Conde, who is from Guinea, says Dmitry Aidov said "monkey" while standing near Conde and Nigerian Fegor Ogude at a free kick. The alleged comment was made at the match between Conde's Amkar Perm and Aidov's Arsenal Tula.

Conde says he told Aidov: "How can you say 'monkey'? You can't be a racist now in football. You're a person, I'm a person."

It was not possible to hear Aidov's comments on TV footage. Amkar won the game 1-0.

Aidov said Conde had made up the incident, in comments reported by Russian newspaper Sport Express.