Two Russia soccer players have been fined by their clubs over an ostentatious party after the national team's exit from the European Championship.
Video posted online appeared to show forward Aleksandr Kokorin and midfielder Pavel Mamaev in a Monaco nightclub, with waiters carrying dozens of bottles of champagne, as the Russian national anthem played.
Fans commenting online said the party was inappropriate after Russia's poor performance at Euro 2016.
Kokorin's club Zenit St. Petersburg and Mamaev's team FC Krasnodar said in statements on July 5 that the players would be fined and sent to train with the clubs' youth squads.
Kokorin told TASS that he didn't order the champagne, and that he and Mamaev were dining at the Twiga nightclub during someone else's birthday celebrations.
"We had nothing to do with bills for that party," which Life.ru said cost 250,000 euros, Kokorin said. "The money mentioned by media could have bought not only the champagne but the entire club."