The 2011 FIFA Club World Cup, the annual tournament that brings together champion clubs from all six confederations, isn’t until December. But Brazilian powerhouse FC Santos is already trying to drum up support for its team with a new website and corresponding promotional ad campaign.

The only problem? Um, this might be a wee bit insulting to the host nation: Japan.

“That’s racist!,” shouts everyone who knows it’s not polite to do the slanty-eyes photo.

The ad features world-class striker Neymar, scorer of this amazing goal earlier in the week, front and center with three teammates in front of a black-and-white Japanese Rising Sun flag.

Here’s a local Spanish report shot in front of the ad at Santos Stadium today.

By the way, in case your knowledge of Spanish is a bit rusty, the Marca reporter in the clip above never even discusses the casual racism contained within the ad. He simply says the four guys in the picture are getting psychologically prepared for the tournament in Japan, calls Neymar the face of the club (some face!) and talks about Real Madrid’s efforts in trying to woo the Brazilian striker.

The hilariously offensive ad for FC Santos is reminiscent of the Spanish basketball team’s posing similarly slit-eyed for an ad that appeared in Spain’s newspaper Marca ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

The uproar over that shot was massive, and Pau Gasol had to publicly apologize on behalf of the team. We’ll see whether Neymar & Co. feel the same heat once this inevitably goes viral.

(via Spanish Miguel, who thankfully for us reads Marca.com)