Former Arsenal player Emmanuel Frimpong sent-off for swearing at Spartak Moscow fans after being racially abused with monkey chants

Frimpong was targeted with monkey chants before showing them the middle finger that resulted in him being sent off

Emmanuel Frimpong swears at fans racially abusing him (Twitter)

Former Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong was sent-off in Ufa's opening Russian Premier League match of the season after swearing at fans who were racially abusing him.

The 23-year-old Ghanaian was targeted with monkey chants during the 2-2 draw with Spartak Moscow. Having responded by raising his middle finger his abusers direction, Frimpong was shown a red card.

Frimpong took to Twitter to apologise for his reaction, but insisted that racism is a problem in Russia and questioned what was being done about it given that the Fifa World Cup will be held in the country in just three years’ time.

He wrote, with little punctuation and plenty of grammatical errors: “First of want to apologize for the sending off after being provoked shouldn't have happened but also am a human being shouldn't be…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..and yet we going to hold a World Cup in this country where African will have to come play football I must stressed not all Spartak…Fans done that only one person had to ruin it Spartak fans were brilliant and created a good atmosphere shame oneperson ruin it we live on.”

When speaking to Russian reporters, the former Arsenal man said: "When the match was stopped, the fans started shouting 'monkey' at me. Then the monkey chants started.

"I don't have any problems with the Spartak fans in general. I just did not keep my cool, I showed my emotions and it was my mistake. I want to say sorry for what I did," he added.

FC Ufa player Emmanuel Frimpong (Getty Images)

What was perhaps more worrying was the fact that Ufa’s general director Shamil Gazizov revealed the club will not seek for action to be taken against Spartak due to the “good terms” between the clubs.

"It was an unfortunate incident,” said Gazizov. “There were people who could have shouted things. These are emotions which go away after the game. We are partners with the red and whites and are on good terms.

"What Frimpong did was wrong. Sometimes you even have to hold back the tears and just put up with it," Gazizov added.