UEFA has opened a disciplinary proceeding into Tuesday’s Champions League match between Paris St Germain and Istanbul Basaksehir when players walked off in protest after the Turkish club accused a match official of racism.
Match official involved
The incident was sparked when Basaksehir’s assistant coach Pierre Webo was shown a red card for protesting against a refereeing decision and the Turkish side then alleged that the Romanian fourth official Sebastian Coltescu used a racist term towards the Cameroonian.
Players from both teams left the field after about 10 minutes of discussions with Romanian referee Ovidiu Hategan, a first in European football.
The game, which was suspended after 13 minutes, was to be completed on Wednesday with new match officials.
TV footage showed fourth official Coltescu saying in Romanian: ‘The black one over there. Go and check who he is. The black one over there, it’s not possible to act like that’ after Webo vehemently protested against a refereeing decision.
“Why he say negro?” Basaksehir substitute Demba Ba repeatedly asked match referee Hategan as confusion reigned on the touchline in the Group H match. The Romanian word for black is “negru”.
