Argentina Football Federation apologises over issuing manual on seducing Russian women ahead of World Cup

The Argentina Football Association has apologised for handing out a manual on how to seduce Russian women. Photo / Getty

Argentine football bosses have apologised after the distribution of a manual including a chapter on how to seduce Russian women during the 2018 Fifa World Cup triggered angry responses from women's rights groups globally.

The manual was handed out to journalists, players, and coaches attending a course about the Russian language and culture, hosted by the Argentina Football Federation at their headquarters in Buenos Aires, AFP reported.

The World Cup starts in Russia next month, with Lio Messi's team one of the bookmakers' pre-tournament favourites.

One of the course participants, Nacho Catullo, posted a chapter from the manual to Twitter that, loosely translated, was headlined "What to do to have an opportunity with a Russian woman".

Muy moderno el manual de estilo de la AFA sobre el Mundial pic.twitter.com/aWT4FrfCie

— Nacho Catullo (@nachocatullo) May 15, 2018

It suggests "Russian girls pay close attention if you are clean, you smell good and if you are well dressed," and "Russian girls do not like to be seen as objects".

"Because Russian women are beautiful many men only want to sleep with them...the advice is to treat the woman in front of you as if she is someone of value," the manual read.

According to espn.com, the offending material was taken from a blog about Russian women, and "mistakenly" included by the course director, Russian language teacher Eduardo Pennisi.

[COMUNICADO DE PRENSA] Luego de los hechos de público conocimiento sucedidos en el día de ayer, el Departamento de Educación de la Asociación del Fútbol Argentino realiza la siguiente aclaraciónhttps://t.co/8vi8P7FRNH pic.twitter.com/ukbVr7oivV

— AFA (@afa) May 16, 2018

The AFA has since removed the offending pages from the notebooks, and offered the following apology:

"The teacher in charge of the course selected information to give to those in attendance but unfortunately, when printing it, due to an involuntary error, he included the text that was never a part of the course.

"Having notified the personnel of the department, we proceeded to have it immediately removed. We lament that such mistake has overshadowed what was important on the date.

"We express our most sincere apologies to those that were affected by the publication which in no way reflects the thinking of the Argentina Football Association, nor of its president Claudio Tapia or any of its executives."