Christopher Samba asked not to go out for the second half of Monday’s Moscow derby between Dynamo and Torpedo due to the racist abuse he was receiving.
A Russian Football Union (RFU) representative confirmed racist chants had been directed at the former Blackburn and QPR defender.
“I can confirm Samba felt offended with Torpedo fans and didn’t want to go on the pitch for the second half,” Dynamo vice-president Gennady Soloviev said.
“That’s why he was replaced.”
Dynamo won the game 3-1 and manager Stanislav Cherchesov said afterwards that Samba had been substituted because of a calf injury.
The defender spent six years at Blackburn, making 185 appearances between 2006 and 2012. The Congo international left for Anzhi Makhachkala but returned to England in January 2013 to play 10 games in a loan spell with QPR.
It is the second racist incident involving Sambaafter a fan in Moscow threw a banana at him in March 2012 while the defender was playing for another Russian side, Anzhi Makhachkala. Samba picked up the banana and threw it back into the stands.
The RFU’s disciplinary committee will hold a hearing on the latest case on Thursday.
As there was a note on racist chants in the report filed by the RFU’s delegate at the match, FC Torpedo face a possible sanction or a ban on playing at their home ground in Ramenskoye, near Moscow.
Former RFU chief Vyacheslav Koloskov – who is also a former Fifa vice-president – said the Moscow club may be punished by being forced to play its next game without home spectators.
Torpedo president Alexander Tukmanov said he did not hear chants directed towards Samba but added that the RFU delegate must have had a reason to mention it in his report.
Russia, which will host the 2018 World Cup, has had several instances of racism in the sport in recent years.
Brazilian defender Roberto Carlos was racially abused twice in Russia while also playing for Anzhi. Both incidents happened in 2011 – in St Petersburg and Samara, which are World Cup host cities.
St Petersburg is also among the cities that have been selected to host Euro 2020 matches, including a quarter-final.
In October 2013 Russian champion CSKA Moscow were punished by Uefa with the partial closure of their stadium in a Champions League match, following racist chanting directed at Manchester City’s Yaya Toure.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said at a handover ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, before the World Cup final in July, that he hoped the World Cup would help Russia in its fight against racism.
“President Blatter puts a lot of personal effort into addressing social issues, and we hope that the preparations for the World Cup in Russia will also contribute to tasks such as fighting drugs, racism and other challenges we face today,” Putin said.
