French defender Mouctar Diakhaby (number 12) and his teammates at club Valencia leave the pitch following allegations of racist slurs during a game in Cadiz on April 4, 2021. -
Román Ríos / EFE
While the score was blocked everywhere, the game between Valencia and Cadiz on Sunday changed in the 31st minute.
The players of the Spanish club Valencia then briefly left the pitch.
The reason ?
According to the club, its French defender Mouctar Diakhaby has been the target of racist insults by an opponent.
Around the 31st minute of play, therefore, Diakhaby stopped playing to attack an opposing player: Juan Cala.
The two men started to shout at each other, then Diakhaby indicated to the referee that he was going to leave the field, which earned him a yellow card.
The defender then left the pitch, followed by all his teammates.
Diakhaby prefers not to replay
The interruption of this match in Cadiz counting for the 29th day of La Liga lasted a quarter of an hour, then the game resumed in the 37th, without Diakhaby, but still with Cala on the Cadiz side.
The French defender then took his place in the stands to watch the rest of the match.
After half-time, Alvaro Cervera, the Cádiz coach, decided to send Cala out and replace him with Marcos Mauro… who then scored the winning goal 2-1, in the 89th.
In the evening, the two clubs each issued a statement to speak out against racism.
"We have no doubts about the honesty of all members of our workforce, who are fervent defenders of the fight against racism," assured the Cadiz club, adding that "all the perpetrators of this kind of crime, who 'they are on our team or not, have to pay for it ”.
"NO TO RACISM […] ALL WITH YOU, MOUCTAR", for its part tweeted Valence CF.
“Diakhaby told us there was a racist insult so we went back [to the locker room].
We were told that we had to play again because otherwise we would lose all three points, or more.
It was Diakhaby who asked us to play, otherwise we wouldn't have done it.
(…) He told us that he didn't want to play again.
Diakhaby is devastated.
It was a very ugly insult that I will not repeat ”, reacted left-back Gaya at Movistar's microphone at the final whistle.
Two versions clash
At a post-match press conference, Cadiz continued to refute this version.
Alvaro Cervera thus affirmed that “Cala said that at no time did he insult the player.
I have to believe my player.
(…) He did not tell me that he had not told him anything, he told me that he had not insulted him ”.
"I know Diakhaby well… he would not have abandoned the match for no reason," for his part reacted Eliaquim Mangala, the midfielder and former French international from Valencia, currently injured.
La Liga, on the other hand, has not yet wished to react.
This position could change, however.
League officials are content to answer that the report of the refereeing body, where these incidents were clearly and at length detailed, could possibly lead to an investigation.
Sport
In Spain, football supporters prosecuted for the first time for racist insults
Sport
District match arrested in Brittany after racist remarks by a player
Soccer
Insult
Spain
Sport
Racism