<h3 style="text-align: justify">Russian football was hit by a new race storm Friday when Ghana's Emmanuel Frimpong was sent-off after just 30 minutes of the season opener for reacting to a stream of abuse.</h3> <p style="text-align: justify">Former Arsenal star Frimpong, playing for Ufa in the Russian Premier League, received a straight red card on the half-hour mark for making an obscene gesture at Spartak Moscow supporters.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">"I want to apologize for the sending off after being provoked, shouldn't have happened but also am a human being," the 23-year-old Frimpong later tweeted after the game which ended 2-2.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">"Racially abused for the game that I love. Fantastic result to draw with Spartak, proud of team and I'm going to serve a sentence for being abused."</p> <p style="text-align: justify">Frimpong also said he was stunned by the ongoing problem of racism in Russian football, just three years out from the country hosting the 2018 World Cup.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">He added on Twitter: "..and yet we going to hold a World Cup in this country where Africans will have to come play football."</p> . <p style="text-align: justify">On the pitch, Bosnian forward Haris Handzic put Ufa 1-0 up in the 11th minute, heading in a free-kick from Nikolai Safronidi.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">In the 25th minute, German back Serdar Tasci pulled the scores level when he volleyed home a rebound after Ufa 'keeper David Yurchenko parried a close-range shot by Ivelin Popov.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">Despite being a man down, Ufa grabbed the lead again in the 67th minute through defender Dmitriy Stotskiy who headed home from a left-wing cross by Handzic.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">Cape Verde striker Ze Luis then came off the bench to level with 11 minutes left when he slotted the ball home from a Dmitry Kombarov corner.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">"It was a good game even though we failed to win," Spartak manager Dmitry Alenichev said.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">"We dominted after the break and created chances but a loss of concentration has cost us another goal."</p> <p style="text-align: justify">Ufa head coach Igor Kolyvanov praised his team for their display following the red card.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">"It was hard to oppose Spartak attacks after Frimpong was sent off," he said.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">"But my players showed great spirit. They are in good physical condition, it helped us to resist Spartak pressure. I believe the draw is a fair result."</p> <p style="text-align: justify"><strong>By AFP</strong></p>