Orfeo Suárez Madrid

Madrid

Updated Sunday, March 31, 2024-23:04

«We are already in the second half, we are going to take the center after Sestao's second goal, when I see

Cheikh

approaching to remove a bottle. Screams can be heard, many of them, although it is difficult to perceive what they are saying. Suddenly, he turns towards the stands, points, approaches and jumps where the fans are. At that moment, the racist insult crosses my mind, of course, but the first thing I think about is getting my partner out of there. When he arrived, he had grabbed a fan by the scarf around his neck, and he grabbed Cheikh practically in his arms.

The story of

Jorge Casado

, captain of Rayo Majadahonda, relives the new moments of shame in which Spanish football has settled, after what happened on Saturday at the Las Llanas de Sestao stadium. A football that undermines the country's reputation due to the episodes of racism and corruption in the

Negreira

and

Rubiales

cases , just when the distribution of the 2030 World Cup with Portugal and Morocco has to be decided. At the same time that the Senegalese Cheikh Sarr was called a "fucking monkey" and a "fucking black shit" in Sestao, according to his testimony and the complaint filed with the Ertzaintza,

Marcos Acuña

and

Quique Sánchez Flores

heard in Getafe how they were shouted "you're coming!" of the monkey! » and "gypsy!", respectively, as if racism were a metastasis that spreads through the fields, impossible to eradicate.

"He holds him by the scarf"

«Other fans approached to attack our goalkeeper, but Cheikh did not go beyond grabbing the one he had identified by the scarf. It is unfair that now he is the one who has had to pay for all this, since the referee sanctioned him with a red card. Maybe at that moment he was wrong in his reaction, but Cheikh is the victim in all this, not the other way around, like

Vinicius

is or Acuña and Quique were," Casado continues, in conversation with this newspaper. Cheikh has also been denounced by the fan he held in the stands, and referee García Riesgo reflected in the minutes that he approached him with "the intention of attacking me."

The match corresponded to the First RFEF competition, not framed in professional football, so the Rayista captain regrets that "in these categories there are no means to test these episodes, such as microphones. As long as it is that way, many of those who insult will emerge unscathed. I believe Cheikh.

Complaint to the Ertzaintza

Casado accompanied the goalkeeper and a vice president of the club to an Ertzaintza police station, where they filed a complaint. A group of fans have been identified as being drunk in the stands.

«The protocols also failed, because the referee should have suspended the match. Instead, when he arrived and I insisted, he told me: 'Don't make it harder for me.' The only thing he did was send off our goalkeeper, which made him even more angry, and we had to hold him down again,” Casado continues. The suspension only came in the 84th minute, when the visiting players decided that they would not continue playing and the result favored Sestao River (2-1). The referee argues that he did not do it, because neither he nor his assistants could hear what they were racist shouts. Cameras can shed light. There were moments of great tension and uncertainty, in which even Casado put on the goalkeeper's shirt.

«When we entered the locker room, I saw Cheikh dejected. He could barely speak, as he covered his head with his hands. He felt anger and at the same time shame for his reaction, and that is unfair," adds Casado. «He has been in Spain for a long time and, like everyone, we have received insults in the fields of all kinds, but he said that nothing compares to what this time. We all say that what happens is terrible, but we will never know the pain they feel under his skin," concludes the captain who took Cheikh out of the stands, but not from the shame where Spanish football continues.