UEFA Champions League match between France’s Paris Saint-Germain and Turkey’s Medipol Basaksehir late Tuesday was paused after an alleged racist remark targeting the Turkish club’s technical staff.
“NO TO RACISM”
In the 17th minute of the match at Parc des Princes, Basaksehir assistant manager Pierre Webo from Cameroon argued with the referee of the match about a position.
But the fourth official warned the referee to sent him off. Webo claimed that he faced a racist remark from the 4th official. The Turkish team went to the dressing room to protest the official.
Turkey’s Basaksehir players walk off over racist abuse WATCH
Many Turkish clubs, Turkey’s Football Federation, also Paris Saint Germain retweeted and showed support for Basaksehir’s “No To Racism” tweet, protesting the incident. Basaksehir football club said players refuse to play in PSG game amid racist remarks by 4th official against assistant manager Webo.
Basaksehir’s CEO Mustafa Erogut said the match will resume on Wednesday evening, all four officials of the game will be changed.
TURKISH LEADER SLAMMED THE RACIST ACT
The Turkish president and ministers slammed the racist act against Webo.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on social media ‘strongly’ condemns racist remarks by 4th official against Basaksehir’s Pierre Webo during PSG match. Erdoğan added that Turkey is unconditionally against racism and discrimination in sports and all the fields in life.
In addition the Turkish foreign minister said on Twitter that he backs Basaksehir football team’s honorable stance as the Turkish team left the pitch over this incident. “NO TO RACISM!,” Mevlut Cavusoglu added.
Meanwhile the other Turkish clubs Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas said on Twitter that they are all against racism and support Webo each.
Paris Saint-Germain’s French star Kylian Mbappe tweeted: “SAY NO TO RACISM. M.WEBO WE ARE WITH YOU.” on his post, while the team’s 25-year-old French defender Presnel Kimpembe sent out a tweet, saying: “No to racism”.
Basaksehir also tweeted that they are against racism and shared UEFA’s “No to racism” campaign’s banner as Paris Saint-Germain has retweeted this post to back Webo.