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Former Hull City manager Leonid Slutsky has found himself at the middle of a huge censorship scandal in his native Russia.

The Mirror report that the 47-year-old has been axed as a pundit on state-run station Channel 1, amid claims he is being punished for mentioning taboo name Alexei Navalny on state-run TV.

Slutsky, who managed City from June to December last year, had reportedly responded to another pundit Kirill Dementiev who made a reference to “navalny football', which roughly translates as "route-one football” - the word is an adjective as well as a surname.

Russian-style political correctness forbids the 42-year-old anti-corruption campaigner’s name - the N-word - from being mentioned on air on state-run channels, it is claimed.

Problems deepened when another Channel One commentator Vasily Utkin was also fired from World Cup coverage soon after he posted online about Navalny.

Informed sources said he was axed under pressure from the Kremlin.

The scandal unfolded after Slutsky - a former Russian team manager - said: "Unfortunately for me, I am ending my work on Channel One, because it is necessary to embark on other activity.”

This followed his earlier on-air quip during Germany’s game against Mexico when he said: “Does Navalny play football? It would be interesting to see.”

Slutsky had Putin foe Navalny seized on the references and mocked the Kremlin over his name being mentioned.

"The moment when censorship came down and I turned up on Channel One. Well almost,” he joked on Twitter.

Slutsky has sought to play down the row by saying he is poised to start work as manager of Vitesse Arnhem in the Netherlands.

But fans were not convinced this was the true reason his time as a World Cup pundit lasted just four games.

Many saw him as the best pundit on Russian TV, and social media blamed censorship for his demise.

He covered Russia-Egypt, Russia-Saudi Arabia, Germany-Mexico and England-Tunisia games before his departure.

A version of this article first appeared on the Mirror, which can be found here.

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