The Swedish Football Federation (SvFF) punished this referee without referee in the rest of 2020 for making a racist comment to Aly Keita, Östersund goalkeeper , top team.

The disciplinary committee of the Swedish federation considered that Martin Strömbergsson , a 43-year-old referee with international experience, urged Keita (a Swede of Guinean origin by father) during a match to return to the goal to be "shot" bananas

"Martin assures that he did not have any racist intention when he said it. We have no reason to doubt it, but we believe that it is a very unfortunate expression and it is evident that it may be insulting. After what happened, it is not appropriate for him to whistle more matches in what remains of 2020 ", appears in a statement.

The Swedish league started a few weeks ago and will end on December 6 , two months later than usual, due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was the player himself who revealed a few weeks ago in a soccer podcast that, last season, Strömbergsson told him: "Stop talking, go back to your goal so they can throw you bananas."

"I was wrong"

Keita's revelation caused the SvFF to open a file and the collegiate himself to admit the facts, although assuring that it had been a misunderstanding and qualifying the phrase.

"Saying to the janitor 'go back to the cage to get a banana' is an expression that I used before as a joke and that is not related to skin color but to the role of janitor. I was wrong and I want to reiterate again that it has nothing to do with Aly being dark-skinned , "Strömbergsson said in a statement.

The referee noted that he had already apologized to the player after the game in his day, and that he had no problem doing it again.

The explanations do not seem to have convinced Keita, who has questioned Strömbergsson's version and intentions.

"He said it was a rhetorical phrase, but I think perhaps he was trying to save himself . He was there and I know what he said, there was another player who heard it," Keita told Fotbollskanalen portal this week.

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