if he were a gay man surely he'd be all for them taking off their tops, I can't believe I am even discussing this. It could be any number of more plausible reasons, integrity of the sport, being a conservative who is reluctant to see the game change and wants to keep it the same

This does show the strides the UK have made in this area.  Was it as recently as 1988 that we had the "Everton are white" chants when John Barnes joined Liverpool?

"in which racist scandals are happening every month"

You think Russia and the UK are comparable in terms of attitudes to racism?  Seriously?

The UK is 20-30 years ahead of Russia here, that is all. So England shouldn't have hosted the 1966 WC then? It is a bit rich that a country deals with a racism problem (partially) and then gets on its high horse criticising other countries which haven't (yet). Racism could be stamped out a lot between now and 2018 in Russia, who knows? Highlighting the Zenith fans stance will only help see it stamped out.

As if they didnt know about these things before they decided. Are you that gullible? Money talks.

agree
they are entitled to their point of view

SoA are you saying I am gullible? You asked why Russia should host the WC if SA was never awarded it? It is a moot point, they have already been awarded the WC. Of course they knew about it, it was no secret, yes money talks, we can see that from Qatar. But questioning Russia after the fact is pointless. There were similar issues in Ukr/Poland this yr and it didn't stop them.

Russia does not operate apartheid
Coloured players are allowed to play there and I assume have all the rights of white citizens
I assume no racial heckling will be allowed

changing what people feel deep down is more difficult it takes time

It is not so long ago that a recently defunct British club banned players of a particular religion. This was enshrined in the club's constitution, not simply enforced by the fans (their influence in keeping that religion out lasted for many years after it was removed from the constitution). While the club now admit players of that religion and the fans sing their praises, the said fans still hate them as a group.
The Russian thing is worse in that you know that the state and the institutions have no interest in changing things and see no shame in it. To the Russian contributor who was ashamed and said 'we fought Hitler' - was that not perhaps because Germany invaded your territory? You felt no great desire to help the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto and indeed pogroms are a regular part of your history. A downtrodden people must exhibit their hate in some way. Dictators have always known and used this.

puts the premier league so called issues into perspective

The same applies to Athletico Bilbao, but there is a subtle difference. Barcelona and Bilbao said that this was their history and they didn't want anyone else, as would be the case of your hypothetical South African club. The other examples are of teams saying that they specifically did not want one other particular group and so had a targeted hatred rather than a protective pride. If Glasgow Rangers had said that they only wanted Scottish Presbyterian players they could have had some respect, but the didn't. They said that they didn't want Catholics. Zenit are not saying that they only want Russians.
I am not in favour of the closed groups in anything other than a Sunday league, but they do have more justification than the other kind.