Lokomotiv issued a statement after the conditional disqualification of striker Artem Dziuba for insulting a journalist.

On August 12, Lokomotiv hosted Wings of the Soviets in its field as part of the 4th round of the RPL. Dziuba missed the game due to injury. After the match, the player and his family were walking to the car when the RB Sport journalist caught up with him. The forward reacted sharply to the question of a media employee, promising to put the journalist’s phone in “one place” next time. On Wednesday, Dzyuba, following a meeting of the RFU FTC, was suspended for two matches conditionally and fined 50,000 rubles for behavior towards a journalist.

– FC Lokomotiv stated its position at a meeting of the RFU FTC and, based on the decision, the committee heard the club’s position, albeit partially, accepting the minimum possible punishment against Artem Dziuba.

However, the club will request the motivational part of this decision in order to understand why the rules of the regulation were violated by the player in principle, since there is not a single qualifying sign of offensive behavior. It should be noted that during the meeting, the journalist Vitaly Borodin himself said that he did not consider the phrase spoken by our football player Artem Dzyuba in the parking lot offensive.

FC Lokomotiv agrees that Artem Dzyuba’s behavior was overly emotional, as the footballer himself said during the meeting of the FTC, promising to draw conclusions and not repeat such mistakes in the future. At the same time, both the club and the footballer would like to emphasize that, at the time of the shooting, the footballer was leaving the territory of the RZD Arena with his family. Including with young children who were frightened by the persistent behavior of a stranger.

Also, FC Lokomotiv would like to call on all media representatives to communicate with representatives of the club in areas specially designated by the regulations, adhering to the principles of mutual respect, and not in parking lots or other places on the territory of the stadiums of the RPL clubs. We ask everyone involved in organizing and holding official football matches in Russia to pay attention to this.

In addition, in order to avoid such situations and further misunderstandings, the club will contact the RPL and the RFU to develop appropriate amendments to the regulatory documents.

Recall that, in accordance with the Disciplinary Regulations, both the player and the club have the right to request the full text of the decision of the RFU FTC within 5 calendar days after receiving an extract from the decision or from the moment it is published on the RFU official website. Also, the player has the right to appeal the decision of the FTC, as the fine is more than 40,000 rubles, the club said in a statement.