Two more cases of racism in football were reported this Monday in the friendly matches of the New Zealand and Ireland Under-21 teams. In both matches, the teams denounced racist insults towards one of their players and decided not to finish playing their respective matches. Coincidentally both games were played in Austria.
The first was in the Ireland-Kuwait game when, in added time, a racist insult was reported by a Kuwaiti player towards a footballer who was on the Irish bench. Irish manager Jim Crawford immediately took his players off the pitch and decided not to finish the game.
The Football Association of Ireland issued a statement saying the game was abandoned because of “a racist comment by a Kuwaiti player towards one of our substitutes”, adding that it will report the case to FIFA and UEFA. In this case, the identity of none of those involved has not been revealed.
The Kuwait Football Association responded to the accusations with a statement in which they deny that such an event occurred. “We confirm that the news is false and we categorically reject the accusations. We condemn all forms of discrimination, inequality and racism,” he says.
In addition, the statement denies that the Irish team has abandoned the game, and notes that it was the referee who decided to end the friendly due to “excessive violence and tension between the players.”
An hour after the Ireland match came to an abrupt conclusion, the second incident of the day took place in the New Zealand-Qatar game. Near the end of the first half, Yusuf Abdurisag went down after giving a pass and the referee called a foul. Michael Boxall, a New Zealand defender, went to protest before the referee and said something to Abdurisag, who got up and gave him the alleged racist insult.
The New Zealand players who heard him immediately complained to the referee, but he did not take any action. The teams went to rest and that was when the oceanic team made the decision not to play the second half, after confirming that no action was going to be taken in this regard.
The New Zealand Football Association also spoke on the matter through its Executive Director, Andrew Pragnell. “We fully support the action of our players who collectively made the decision. We never want to have to abandon a game but some issues are bigger than football and it is important to take a strong stand. There is no room for racism in football.” dictates the statement.
For its part, the Qatar Football Association limited itself to publishing that the match was not going to end, but did not mention anything about the complaint. “New Zealand withdrew from the friendly against our National Team that was being played today in Austria,” read the statement posted on the organization’s Twitter account.
Who did speak about it was the Qatar coach, the Portuguese Carlos Queiroz, who minimized the case to just a discussion between the players and assured that the referee did not hear any insults. “They support the testimony of their player, we support the testimony of our player and they decided to leave the game without witnesses,” said the coach.
Both events that happened in Austria have quickly gone viral, especially that of Qatar, since in the last few hours the call for Yusuf Abdurisag for the CONCACAF Gold Cup was confirmed, which the Asians will play as guests. And it is precisely that Concacaf published a few days ago the relaunch of its campaign “What is wrong is wrong”, dedicated to combating discrimination in its regional tournaments.
The Confederation is under scrutiny after homophobic insults were heard from the Mexican fans in the match between the United States and Mexico, for the semifinals of the League of Nations. “Concacaf strongly condemns the discriminatory shouting by some fans during last night’s game, which led to the activation of its anti-discrimination protocols,” the organization published.
Now, many fans are calling on CONCACAF to ban Abdurisag from playing in the Gold Cup, after denouncing his racist behavior. At the moment, neither Concacaf, nor UEFA, nor FIFA have ruled on the incidents reported by Ireland and New Zealand.
The fight against racism has dominated the news around the world in recent weeks, after the insults received by Vinícius Jr. in the game against Valencia at Mestalla. After this fact, FIFA intervened with the announcement of its president, Gianni Infantino, about the creation of an anti-racism Committee that will be led by the Brazilian soccer player from Real Madrid.
“There will be no more football with racism. The matches must stop immediately when it happens. Enough is enough,” declared the chief before the friendly that Brazil played against Guinea to promote an anti-racism campaign and in which a racist incident towards a friend was also reported de Vinícius, who denounced the insults of a stadium guard.
