Wijnaldum calls for UEFA to suspend the matches where there are racist shouts

He raised his voice of protest. The captain of the Netherlands team, Georginio Wijnaldum, said on Thursday that the decision to leave a football field if there are racist insults should not fall on the players and stressed that it would be up to UEFA to suspend the match. "UEFA should be there to protect the players on the pitch, it should make the decision for the players (...).

UEFA should have a leading role and they should be the ones who say: 'if this happens, the match is suspended,' "Wijnaldum said at a press conference with the Dutch concentration. The current Paris Saint-Germain player and former Liverpool player said he has never received racist insults from the public on the pitch, but acknowledged that he has wondered what he will do if it happens to him when he is on the pitch in Budapest next Saturday. against the Czech Republic for the round of 16.

French strikers Kylian Mbappé, whose father is Cameroonian, and Karim Benzema, of Algerian ancestry, had to hear monkey screeches from the Budapest crowd in the second qualifying match against Hungary. “I have never experienced that feeling and I hope I never feel it. I don't know how he would react.

At first I thought that I would not leave the field, but now I think differently, ”added Wijnaldum. The captain of the "Oranje" insisted that "in those moments you have to approach the referee with your teammates and make the decision." "But I think everyone agrees that it is UEFA that has to protect the players," he stressed.