Racist scandals are not uncommon in football, but the incident in the match of the 6th round of the Champions League group stage between PSG and Istanbul Bashakshehir became one of the most notorious in recent years.
Conversations around him do not subside even a few days after the meeting.
Istanbul's assistant coach Pierre Vebo spoke for the first time about how he felt when Romanian referee Sebastian Koltsescu called him “black” during the match.
According to the specialist, he had never been so angry before and would not have wanted to face himself at that moment.
“It was very hard to hear that from one of the judges.
Just a shock.
To do this - yes from a person who himself must control such situations ... He is the fourth referee at the Champions League match.
This is a high level, and people must be appropriate at a high level, ”the Daily Mail quotes Vebo.
“We are obliged to carefully weigh what we say on the field,” the specialist emphasized.
We will remind, the scandal occurred in the 14th minute of the meeting.
Reserve judge Koltsesku did not like Vebo's behavior, and he asked a colleague to pay attention to him, while using the word "negru", which is translated from Romanian as "black".
The striker of the Turkish team, Demba Ba, heard an ambiguous statement and decided to figure it out.
On the field, a verbal skirmish began, and the other participants in the meeting learned about what had happened.
Then the teams decided to go to the under-stands.
Despite the fact that there were no direct insults to Webo, the specialist is sure that Koltsescu could have chosen a different expression to indicate him.
“Given where I was, it would be very easy to say, 'Hey, get him off the field.'
"Whom?"
"That one."
Show me.
“Here.
His".
It's easy.
But he said what he said just as easily.
And why exactly this word? ”- the trainer reproduced the potential dialogue between the members of the refereeing panel.
The Turkish team rejected the offer of the UEFA delegates to continue the match with a new reserve referee, and the game was postponed to the next day.
It ended in a crushing victory for the Parisians with a score of 5: 1.
Vebo admitted that he was pleasantly surprised by the support from his players, who left the field after him.
In particular, Demba Ba said that the whole team reacted categorically to what happened.
“At first we talked among ourselves, then some spoke louder and said:“ We either all go out on the field, or we all stay. ”
I was surprised by the reaction of some players, especially Enzo Crivelli.
I told him: “Enzo, if they all go out, then you go out too.
You are 25 years old ”, - quotes the words of Ba Goal.com.
“If you only knew how fiercely he answered me:“ No, I won't go out. ”
In football, these things must be done away with.
If we do nothing today, it will continue, ”added Ba.
After the incident, Vebo was supported by the leadership of both clubs and even Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who called on UEFA to punish the culprits.
Tottenham head coach Jose Mourinho suggested that the scandalous meeting would become a landmark in the fight against racism, ex-Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba thanked Istanbul players and mentors for their principled position, and PSG striker Kilian Mbappe stressed that such Acts of discrimination must be rooted out by action, not by words.
It is worth noting that there is also a different point of view on the incident.
For example, former England striker John Barnes does not agree with the opinion that Koltsescu's words should be regarded as racism.
He noted that the referee expressed himself in a way that was available to him, since he did not know the names of all the members of the coaching staff of Bashakshehir, most of whom are white.
Romania also put forward its own version of the development of events.
According to some reports, Vebo himself provoked the officials of the match, calling them gypsies.
According to another version, in this way the head coach of “Istanbul” Okan Buruk insulted the referees.
In addition, threats were poured against the judging team for allegedly biased decisions.
At the moment, an investigation is underway regarding the actions of the arbitrator.
It is assumed that in case of proof of guilt, he could face at least a ten-match disqualification.
Against the backdrop of the scandal around PSG and Istanbul, another unpleasant incident occurred in European football.
In one of the matches of the 6th round of the Europa League group stage, the fate of the CFR Cluj club was decided, which, in the event of a victory over the Young Boys, would advance to the playoffs.
However, in stoppage time, French referee Benoit Bastien showed a red card to the goalkeeper of the Romanian team Christian Balgradean, who allegedly punched his opponent and awarded a penalty.
The Swiss evened the score, and then won, and two more players were removed from the field before the final whistle.
After the match in the CFR, the referee was accused of bias, and one of the players, whose name was not named, suggested that the whole thing was in the origin of the Romanian club's players.
“The scale of what happened in Paris on Tuesday evening is much larger than you might think.
Yesterday CFR was kicked out of the Europa League after a contrived penalty awarded by French referee Benoit Bastien.
“We are gypsies for you, right ?!”, one of the CFR players shouted in his face, ”wrote journalist Emanuel Rochu.