International Leagues

Indignation at PSG-Istanbul BB after the fourth official said "this black guy"

The fourth official allegedly used a racial expression against Pierre Webó, from Turkish team staff. Both teams agreed to leave the pitch and the match was suspended.

By Mauricio Saenz

The fourth official allegedly used a racial expression against Pierre Webó, from Turkish team staff. Both teams agreed to leave the pitch and the match was suspended.
The fourth official allegedly used a racial expression against Pierre Webó, from Turkish team staff. Both teams agreed to leave the pitch and the match was suspended.
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In the last month, lots of awareness campaigns have been made public to end racism, with Black Lives Matter protests all around the world. But sadly, the racism was not on the pitch, but in the sidelines, in a match for UEFA Champions League, between Paris Saint-Germain and Istanbul Basaksehir at Parc des Princes.

At 13 minutes of match and after a yellow card for the visitor manager Okan Buruk, the fourth official, the Romanian Sebastian Coltescu told the main referee, Ovidiu Hategan, that he had to send off Pierre Webó, in Istanbul staff. But he referred to Webó as "the black guy". The Cameroonian approached him angry and asked “Why do you call “negro?"” with Buruk joining the protest.

Coltescu tried to defend himself saying he mentioned his skin color just as a reference, and Webó replied “When you talk about others you don’t say “that white guy””. From the other side, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar showed solidarity with Webó and told Hategan that they would not resume the match with Coltescu. So both teams agreed to leave the pitch.

So officially, the game is suspended. UEFA demanded both teams to resume the match one hour later, but nobody from Istanbul showed up. They do not want Coltescu there, not even at VAR office. Everything next will be probably decided on a court and probably, the official will be out of soccer for a very long time.


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