FC Ufa midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong has received a two-match ban after he was sent off for an offensive gesture to the crowd in response to alleged racist abuse during a Russian Premier League game.
The incident happened during a week 1 clash between Frimpong’s club Ufa and Spartak Moscow at the weekend.
The Ghanaian was sent off for raising his finger to Spartak Moscow fans in response to alleged monkey chants.
Following his dismissal the former Arsenal player questioned Russia’s preparedness for the 2018 World Cup when racist incidents are still occurring.
“I’m going to serve a sentence for being abused… and yet we are going to hold a World Cup in this country,” Frimpong wrote on his Twitter feed.
The draw for the preliminary rounds of the 2018 Fifa World Cup holds in St. Petersburg on Saturday afternoon, as questions are continuously being asked about the host nation’s readiness to combat the menace.
Zenith St Petersburg star striker Hulk affirms “it will be really gross and really ugly if [racism] happens in the World Cup.”
The Brazilian says he encounters racism in “almost every game” in Russia.
“Usually it happens when Russian clubs play and it doesn’t come out to the world and the world doesn’t know about this,” he said through a translator.
“I must say that almost every game I see this happening. I used to get angry, but now I see this doesn’t help, so I just send a kiss to our fans and try not to get angry.”
Two Moscow clubs, Spartak and Torpedo, were sanctioned after their fans abused Hulk with monkey chants last season.
In December, Hulk alleged he was racially abused by the Russian referee Alexei Matyunin during a league game. The referee was cleared by a Russian Football Union (RFU) panel, which ruled there was insufficient evidence.
Spartak will not be punished over Friday’s Frimpong incident, as the RFU committee are understood to have ruled out racism claims as it didn’t find any confirmations of monkey chants.
CSKA were hit with partial stadium closure in the 2013-14 Uefa Champions League group stage over the racist behaviour of their fans during a group stage clash with Manchester City.
Ivory Coast international, Yaya Toure, notified the centre referee about a ‘Monkey Chant’ by a section of the fans inside the Moscow stadium during a Group D encounter.
