Champions League: PSG vs Istanbul Basaksehir Players Walk Out Over Racism
Racism in sports has been a frequent issue throughout the world. And in particular racism in football towards the African-American players has been evident over the course of history. A considerable amount of international documented racist acts occurred during professional sports. Out of 131 racist acts in sports in 2019, around 81 of them were related to Football. Countries like Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Russia faced discrimination, including football powerhouse countries Italy and England.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) released a report in 2007 stating that racial abuse and vilification is commonplace in international sports, in places such as Australia, Europe, and America.
Racism in Football Incident from 2019
Last year in March, Chelsea lodged a complaint with UEFA. This happens over the alleged racist abuse of Callum Hudson-Odoi against Dynamo Kiev. Where during the last two minutes of Montenegro vs. England match, winger Hudson-Odoi brought the incident of hearing “monkey chants” from a small group of home supporters in the corner of Chelsea’s end to the attention of team-mate Cesar Azpilicueta.
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Racist Remark During PSG vs Istanbul Basaksehir Match
The Champions League match between Paris Saint-Germain and Istanbul Basaksehir was abandoned after both teams walked off the pitch following an alleged racist slur by the fourth official.
Players from the Turkish team were furious; according to them the fourth official Sebastian Coltescu of Romania had used a racial slur against assistant coach Pierre Webo, who is from Cameroon, before Webo was sent off at Parc des Princes by Romanian match referee Ovidiu Hategan.
“Our assistant coach, Pierre Webo has been sent off with a “racist” word by the 4th official ref. of the match. Match has stopped for a while,” Istanbul Basaksehir said on the club’s official Twitter.
The former BBC political reporter and journalist Sophie Morris also supported Demba Ba over Twitter,
According to a statement issued by UEFA on the incident on Tuesday, the Football’s governing body stated, “Following an alleged incident involving the fourth official, the match was temporarily suspended.” UEFA further said it will launch a “thorough investigation” into the incident and the match will be resumed with a new set of officials taking the match’s charge on Wednesday.
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