“Uefa will conduct a thorough investigation,” said a statement on Twitter. “Racism and discrimination in all its forms has no place in football #notoracism”.
Tempers were rising in the Turkish ranks after the Romanian referee Ovidiu Hagetan had shown yellow cards to Basaksehir skipper Mahmut Tekdemir, defender Rafael as well as coach Okan Buruk in quick succession.
Basaksehir assistant coach Pierre Achille Webo appeared to be venting his fury about the decisions from the stands and was shown a red card after Hagetan consulted the fourth official Sebastian Coltescu.
In the exchange in Romanian, Coltescu allegedly said: "The black one over there. This is not possible. Go and identify him. That guy, the black one."
Television microphones in the empty stadium picked up a furious Webo repeatedly asking why a racist term had been used to describe him.
Complaint
Basaksehir's Senegalese striker Demba Ba could be heard remonstrating with the Coltescu, saying in English: "When you mention a white guy, you never say: ‘This white guy', you just say: 'This guy', so why when you mention a black guy do you say: 'This black guy?'"
Ba’s teammates joined in the argument and as Hagetan tried to restore order, PSG players - led by the Brazil international Neymar - weighed in.
Despite the arrival of a Uefa match supervisor, the teams returned to the dressing rooms.
Nearly two hours later, Uefa announced the match had been abandoned and would be rescheduled for Wednesday afternoon. It will resume in the 14th minute with the Dutch referee Danny Makkelie and as well as other officials from the Netherlands and Poland.
Reaction
Politicians, former players and sports administrators were quick to hail the players’ actions.
France’s sports minister Roxana Maracineanu said a powerful symbolic message had been sent. Her Romanian counterpart, Ionut Stroea, said she apologised for the incident on behalf of Romanian sports players.
Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, tweeted his condemnation. And former England international Rio Ferdinand hailed the players’ actions and added on BT Sport: “The powers that be in this game need to make a stand.”
"We're at a disturbing tipping-point, not a week goes by without an incident involving race."
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) December 8, 2020
"The players walking off is a step in the right direction, but it can't just be left to them."@rioferdy5 calls for a stand to be made following tonight's incident in Paris. pic.twitter.com/Pv7aB3VCIe
Uefa regulations for the Champions League stipulate that any team refusing to play must forfeit the game and face a possible fine of 250,000 euros.
However, Uefa supremos diplomatically refused to enforce that point of order on a match which, due to the overnight suspension, will not change qualification for the latter stages.
Basaksehir, playing in their first Champions League campaign, will finish bottom of the pool. PSG are guaranteed of a place in the knockout rounds after RB Leipzig beat Manchester United 3-2 to go top of the group and push United into third behind PSG.
The French side will take pole position if they can beat Basaksehir.
