Fan who showed Roberto Carlos banana in March won’t be taken to court

Zenit St. Petersburg filed a request with the appropriate authorities, asking if a legal persecution of the fan who has shown a banana to Anzhi Makhachkala defender Roberto Carlos is possible. The incident took place at the match Zenit – Anzhi of the second matchday of the Russian Premier League (2-0).

Sports.ru managed to obtain the answer received by Zenit St. Petersburg from the Investigatory Commitee.

«The interrogated man said that during the flag-raising before the match, he decided to eat a banana, brought in before, but at this moment the crowd pressed him to fences, and therefore he had to stick his hand through the bars not to crash a banana. He was not holding out a banana in the direction of R. Carlos da Silva personally. The fan did not express nationalistic or rasist slogans, as evidenced by witnesses.»

However, Zenit decided to withdraw the fan’s season ticket and dismiss him from visiting the club’s matches.

At the same time, during the match of the matchday 15 of the Russian Premier League between Krylia Sovetov and Anzhi (0:3)  a banana was thrown into Roberto Carlos. The honorary lawyer of Russia Leonid Olshansky said after this episode that criminal charges against the man, who threw a banana on the field, will not succeed either.