Soccer-Torpedo Moscow's ground partly closed over racist chants

By Dmitriy Rogovitskiy MOSCOW, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Torpedo Moscow's stadium has been partly closed for three games after supporters were found guilty of racism for the second time in recent months, the Russian Football Union (RFS) Disciplinary Committee said on Wednesday. Sections of the home support shouted monkey chants at FC Rostov's dark skinned players during Torpedo's 2-1 win in a Russian Premier League clash on Nov. 22. "Due to the offensive chants by Torpedo's supporters, which were directed towards their opponents' players due to their ethnicity and the colour of their skin, part of the club's stadium where their most vocal fans sit will be closed for three matches," the RFS announced on their website (www.rfs.ru) Torpedo, who are 14th in the standings with nine points from 14 games, have also been fined 140,000 roubles ($3,000). "We used all the material that was provided, listened to all the audio and watched all the video where we clearly heard monkey chants," the head of the Disciplinary Committee Artur Grigoryants told reporters. "We are going to tackle racism in football and we are not going to close our eyes to this problem. We must identify and punish hooligans. I hope that members of the various law and order bodies will be more active in the future." In September, Torpedo were also punished for racist chants directed at Dynamo Moscow's Christopher Samba. They were forced to play a match with one section of the stadium closed. ($1 = 47.2672 Russian Roubles) (Reporting by Dmitriy Rogovitskiy; editing by Ken Ferris)