Madrid (AFP)
Spanish club Valencia players briefly left the pitch during their game in Cadiz on Sunday, with the Valencian club claiming that their French defender Mouctar Diakhaby was the target of racist slurs by an opponent.
"All our support to Diakhaby. NO TO RACISM. The player, who received a racist insult, asked his teammates to return to the pitch to fight. ALL WITH YOU, MOUCTAR", wrote the Valence CF in the stride, on Twitter.
"The team got together and decided to come back to defend our colors, but Valencia CF strongly condemns racism in all its forms. NO TO RACISM", the Valencian club had previously reacted on Twitter.
Around the 31st minute of play, when the score was 1-1, Diakhaby stopped playing to attack Spanish player from Cádiz, Juan Cala, and was given a yellow card for this altercation.
The two men started to shout at each other, then Diakhaby indicated to the referee that he was going to leave the field, and he was followed by all his teammates.
- "Racism has no place" -
The interruption of this match counting for the 29th day of La Liga lasted a quarter of an hour, then the match resumed from the 37th minute, without Diakhaby remaining in the locker room and replaced by Hugo Guillamon, but with Cala still on the side. Cadiz.
Diakhaby then took his place in the stands to watch the rest of the match.
After halftime, Cadiz coach Alvaro Cervera decided to take Cala out and replace him with Marcos Mauro ... who then scored the 2-1 winning goal for Cadiz in the 89th.
"I know Diakhaby well ... he would not have abandoned the match for no reason ... Racism has no place in football, or anywhere else ... We will soon know the reasons ... But until 'to that we know more: force to you my brother ", reacted on Twitter Eliaquim Mangala, the midfielder and ex-French international of Valencia, currently injured.
- Four months after PSG-Basaksehir -
This incident is reminiscent of that of Moussa Marega in February 2020: the Porto player said he was the victim of a racist insult from a Guimaraes player and decided to leave the pitch, but he was not followed by his teammates.
In November 2020, in Spain, following a complaint lodged by La Liga, an investigation was opened against two supporters of Espanyol Barcelona for racist insults and cries of monkey uttered in January 2020 at against the Basque striker of Athletic Bilbao Iñaki Williams.
On December 8, 2020, all Paris Saint-Germain and Basaksehir players had decided to leave the Parc des Princes pitch in the middle of the Champions League match, due to racist remarks by the fourth Romanian referee, Sebastian Coltescu, at the against Pierre Achille Webo, member of the staff of the Turkish club.
In early March, Mr. Coltescu was suspended until the end of the season by UEFA.
Four months after the incident at PSG-Basaksehir, this new case of racism in a Spanish football stadium comes just over two months before the Euro (June 11-July 11), including one of the host cities will be Bilbao.
The Cadiz club and La Liga have yet to react, as have Mouctar Diakhaby and Juan Cala.
© 2021 AFP