Yaya Toure has warned that black players could boycott the 2018 World Cup if Russia does not tackle its racism problem.

Toure was furious to be subjected to monkey taunts during Manchester City’s Champions League win over CSKA Moscow on Wednesday.

UEFA last night launched disciplinary action against the Russian champions, although a club spokesman claimed no rascist behaviour took place .

Africa will have at least five teams at the 2018 Finals and the Ivory Coast star claims black players need to be assured they will not be racially abused.

“Of course they do,” said Toure. “It’s very important. Otherwise it we are not confident coming to the World Cup in Russia, we don’t come.

“Of course, it’s a problem here, it happens all the time. I played in Ukraine, which was quite good, but they said some things as well. 

“We have come here and it is the same again. I don’t know why it happens in football. I don’t know why you don’t get something like this in rugby or handball or any other sport, it’s just football.”

The Kick It Out anti-racism campaign have given Toure their full support and have grave concerns about Russia staging the World Cup in five years’ time.

“Things are not perfect in this country,” they said in a statement. “But this type of abuse is a depressing throwback and raises questions around the suitability of Russia as World Cup hosts.”

Frustration: Toure was subjected to monkey taunts in Moscow (
Image:
Action Images)

Russia’s 2018 World Cup organising committee claim they are already taking steps to stamp out racism.

“The 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia can act as a catalyst to positively change the mindsets and behaviour across all involved in Russian Football over the next four years,” they said in a statement.

CSKA dispute Toure’s claims and quoted their Ivory Coast striker Seydou Doumbia as accusing his compatriot of exaggeration.

“Having carefully studied the video of the game, we found no racist insults from fans of CSKA,” said the club in a statement.

Doumbia said: “I didn’t hear anything like that from the CSKA fans. So my Ivory Coast colleague is clearly exaggerating.”

FIFPro, the worldwide players’union, claim UEFA ignored their own protocol when Toure complained to referee Ovidiu Hategan by not warning the fans to behave before taking the teams off.

FIFPro European president and PFA deputy chief-executive Bobby Barnes said: “We’re very disappointed that a clear agreed protocol which is designed to deal with these situations was not effected.”