World Cup qualifying: Hulk to star at Russia 2018 draw
Friday 24 July 2015 10:55, UK
Brazil and Zenit St Petersburg striker Hulk will be one of the star names taking part in the preliminary draw for the 2018 World Cup.
He will be joined by compatriot Ronaldo, former Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro and Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o at the Konstantin Palace in St Petersburg on Saturday afternoon.
Hulk said in a statement released by FIFA: "I'm really happy. I feel flattered by the invitation to take part of this event that kicks off the way towards the next World Cup. I feel plainly adapted to Russia and my family really likes St Petersburg.
"Because I travel quite a lot, I'm seeing the construction works throughout the host cities and the build-up of the new stadiums, especially over the last year. From the window of my flat I have a view to Zenit's new stadium, which will be used in the World Cup. It looks beautiful. I hope to be able to play the next World Cup, here, close to my home."
The announcement comes just days after he raised fears of racism at the tournament, claiming he had encountered it in "almost every game in Russia".
Hulk, the most expensive signing in Russian league history, says he has repeatedly heard monkey chants while also claiming to have been racially abused by a referee.
'Boycott'
Earlier this week he said through a translator: "If it happens at the World Cup, it will be really gross and really ugly. Usually it happens when Russian clubs play and it doesn't come out to the world and the world doesn't know about this.
"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."
Hulk is not the first to raise concerns about racism in Russian football. In 2013 Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure said that all black footballer’s could boycott the event in 2018 if it was not addressed.
"If we aren't confident at the World Cup, coming to Russia, we don't come," he said.
And last week, in the first game of the season between FC Ufa and Spartak Moscow, Ghana’s defender Emmanuel Frimpong was sent off for making an offensive gesture to the Spartak fans, triggered, Frimpong said, because he was being “racially abused for the game that I love.”
The Ghanian Football Association has since said it condemns ‘vile racist abuse’ suffered by the former Arsenal player and called for the Russian Football Union, UEFA and FIFA to send “a strong signal to the perpetrators”.
Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko does not think the incident was serious, and told TASS news agency: "I do not think that what surrounds this episode should become inflated into a big scandal. We ourselves are talking too much about it."
