Rangers star Glen Kamara’s lawyer has slammed the Czech Foreign Minister after he waded into a race row surrounding the player.
Jakub Kulhanek summoned British ambassador Nick Archer after young Sparta Prague fans were called out for racially abusing the Rangers star, slamming “disgusting insults” against the schoolchildren who jeered Kamara throughout Rangers’ Europa League game on Thursday night.
But the move was slated by Kamara’s lawyer Aamer Anwar, who retaliated: “Maybe his Government should take the opportunity to address the deep rooted racism that exists in their country.”
The Gers midfielder was singled out for boos by the crowd from the outset of the match in Prague, with celebrations heard when he was dismissed after 75 minutes in Rangers’ 1-0 defeat.
The behaviour was quickly condemned by Mr Anwar, who has been backing the player since Slavia Prague’s Ondřej Kudela was handed a ten-match ban for racially abusing his client during a Europa League match at Ibrox last season.
And Ibrox boss Steven Gerrard hit out at his treatment in his post-match press conference after the game was supposed to be played behind closed doors as a result of previous racist abuse during a match with Monaco.
Sparta Prague released a furious statement calling for a halt to “cowardly” criticism of the school kids after UEFA relaxed rules to allow thousands of under 14s into the Letna Stadium, demanding: “Stop attacking our children!”
“We are seeing unprecedented xenophobic statements against the Czech Republic, its citizens and even its children on social media.”
But the incident escalated into a diplomatic row on Friday when Foreign minister Kulhanek waded in, tweeting: “Enough! Intentionally spread, disgusting insults against Czech children in the media and on the internet do not belong to football and even less so to good relations between two countries.
“I will summon the British ambassador on Monday and resolve the matter with him.”
Responding to Kulhanek’s comments, Mr Anwar called on his Government and UEFA to instead focus on stamping out abuse.
He said: “The question that must be asked is why would children target Glen Kamara? Is it because after Glen complained about racist abuse by a Slavia Prague player, he was then demonised by their fans, Czech journalists and even their politicians.
“Glen was also subjected to a diatribe of race hate and threats which was never addressed by the Czech authorities.
“Racism does not happen in isolation, children pick up what happens around them and that is why it was so depressing to watch, yet another cycle of prejudice in Prague.
“I spoke to Glen this afternoon, he says he just wants to get on with playing football. Whilst Glen was saddened at the abuse he received from children, he wonders what would have happened had the stadium been full of adult fans.
“He said he switched off his phone last night due to the racist bile which has not stopped. Glen is a total professional, but nobody should have to put up with racism on or off the pitch.
“UEFA’s response is sadly the usual pathetic silence, until they start to kick clubs out of competitions for racist behaviour nothing will change.
“There is no point in banners proclaiming respect and unity against racism, when UEFA do very little about fighting racism in the stadiums.
“As for Sparta Prague’s statement, I do not comment on personal abuse and attacks, it might be better if the club started to actually deal with racism.
“I also see that the Czech Foreign Minister has summoned the UK ambassador on Monday to discuss ‘insults’ about Czech children, maybe his Government should take the opportunity to address the deep rooted racism that exists in their country.”
UEFA said it was looking into the matter and declined to comment.
