“There was a group of boys with their own agenda which has nothing to do with football in my opinion. In a few stadiums it’s present, it’s obvious, you cannot pretend that you don’t see it.

“From Lokomotiv I was a little bit surprised. Now I am hearing what is going on there, some of the banners, some shout-outs, it’s more about nationalism and stuff like that.

“I cannot say I’m happy that I left in a good moment but since I left things got a little bit worse.”

Odemwingie’s insistence that racism is getting worse in Russia has been given added credence after Wednesday night’s events in Moscow, while even last year the England C team, comprising semi-professional players, suffered abuse in the same venue as Touré.

England were beaten 4-0 by Russia and four black players – Kieron Forbes (Forest Green Rovers), James Vincent (then Kidderminster, now Inverness Caledonian Thistle), Andre Gray (Luton Town) and Junior Brown (Fleetwood Town) – alleged to hearing monkey noises. No action was taken.

Last season Roberto Carlos, the Brazilian World Cup winner, was repeatedly targeted by racists while playing for Anzhi Makhachkala between 2011-12. Zenit St Petersburg were fined just over £6,000 by the Russian Football Union after one of their supporters waved a banana at him in 2011 and at Samara several months later he had a banana thrown at him. On that occasion he stormed off the pitch in protest.

Christopher Samba, the former Queens Park Rangers defender who now plays for Dynamo Moscow, has had three spells in Russia and once had a banana thrown at him while playing for former club Anzhi Makhachkala against Lokomotiv Moscow. He admitted the racism he encountered was so intense it left him close to tears.

There are growing calls for Uefa to take even stronger action against such incidents and yesterday one Premier League manager backed his players to walk off the pitch in protest.

Paul Lambert, the Aston Villa manager, insisted he would support any of his squad if they opted to take action in the face of abuse.

He said: “There’s no place for it in society, let alone in a football stadium.

“We keep hearing that the authorities are going to do x, y or z and punish these people. The punishment is never strong enough. There’s never been one massive statement made.

“It has to be hit with a massive punishment. Whether that’s finance or you ban a club from playing in Europe. I think it’s got to be a bigger hit.

“I don’t think you can penalise a country but you would certainly act against a club. It’s been happening for a while now.

“A lad from AC Milan [Kevin Prince-Boateng] walked off and if my players had done the same, I would have backed them. No matter whether we were winning, drawing or losing at the time. There’s no place for it.

“I think that if someone draws a line under it and says, ‘Right, this is what’s going to happen’. If you take that stance and say, ‘This is what we are going to do if it happens again’, everyone will follow it.”