ZENIT St Petersburg will pose Liverpool FC a massive bigotry test, admits manager Brendan Rogers.
The two teams were drawn in the Lidl Champions League, and Liverpool face an uphill battle to prove themselves the more racist and homophobic team.
Rogers said: Ive got the lads watching old Bernard Manning tapes to work on their pin-eyed hatred and were travelling to a rural pub in Yorkshire tomorrow with a gay dance troupe from Namibia to study how the locals react.
People have been bigging up this clubs intolerance and Zenit are a massive challenge as theyre so suspicious of outsiders they blew up their own airport to stop any strangers coming to town.
Were having to get a coach there. You cannot buy that level of commitment to being a small-minded moron. Unless youre Chelsea, obviously.
Zenit fans recently wrote to their board insisting they never sign black or gay players. Previous requests for things they don’t want at their ground have included anyone who eats salad and anyone who has been to an art gallery.
Liverpool are hoping the racism of Suarez combined with the homophobia of Suso will be enough to see off Zenit but admit this might falter in the face of 65,000 drunk Russians armed with road flares.
Rogers said:If all else fails we can get the lads to call everyone in the stands Boris and offer them a bottle of vodka. Expensive and time-consuming but a really comprehensive stab at being a xenophobic arse.
