Pogrebnyak has been banned for the rest of the season after racist comments

The footballer, who played 33 times for Russia, was in the eye of a storm on 18th March because of some very unfortunate comments in which he assured to have a "negative opinion" over the fact that there are coloured players in the Russian national team.

"It's ridiculous that a coloured footballer plays in the Russian national team. I don't see how it can make sense," he stated before criticising players like Mario Fernandes, a naturalised Russian: "We have Igor Smolnikov in that position,,, we could have continued to play without foreigners."

These comments have proven to be very costly for the Ural Sverdlovskaya man, because the Russian Football Union (RFU) has banned him for the rest of the season and fined him a token amount of 3500 euros. Before issuing the punishment, the RFU had already condemned Pogrebnyak's words. "They are highly questionable and don't go along with the principles of world football of fighting for equality. You can't define whether a player should play for a country or not based on the colour of his skin."