Brazilian Striker Hulk Pulls Out Of World Cup Draw After Racist Attacks

Brazil’s Hulk engages the crowd for support during their 2014 World Cup round of 16 game against Chile at the Mineirao stadium in Belo Horizonte June 28, 2014.

Zenit St Petersburg’s Hulk has pulled out of Saturday’s 2018 World Cup qualifying draw.

The global governing body of football, FIFA, said Hulk had withdrawn from the gala event on July 25 because of “club commitments” with his team, FC Zenit St. Petersburg.

Other soccer legends such as Hulk’s compatriot, Ronaldo, and the Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto’o, will participate in the draw, which Russian President Vladimir Putin is also expected to attend.

The Russian capital will host the 2018 World Cup final.

After it was announced on Wednesday that he would take part in the draw, Hulk said: “I’m really happy. I have quite adapted to life in Russian Federation, and my family really like St Petersburg”.

Hulk revealed earlier this week that he regularly witnessed “gross and ugly” racism during his time with Zenit.

“Usually it happens when Russian clubs play and it doesn’t come out to the world and the world doesn’t know about this”.

Alexei Sorokin, chief executive of Russia’s World Cup organizing committee, said the decision was unrelated to the Brazilian’s criticism of racism in Russian football.

“I must say that nearly every game I see this happening. I used to get really mad about it but now I just send a kiss to the fans and try not to get raging”.

The problem was again brought under the spotlight when former Arsenal star Emmanuel Frimpong said he was racially abused in a match at Spartak Moscow.

Frimpong was sent off for an offensive gesture to Spartak fans and faces a ban of between two and four games.