Istanbul Basaksehir's Pierre Webo says PSG game will be remembered in racism fight
ByReuters
Published 11/12/2020 at 23:13 GMT
Istanbul Basaksehir and Paris Saint-Germain players both walked off in protest after the Turkish side's assistant manager Pierre Webo was allegedly subjected to racist abuse by the fourth official. The Cameroonian believes that the stand both sets of players took will be remembered in the fight against racism.
PSG - Istanbul Bașakșehir
Image credit: Getty Images
Istanbul Basaksehir assistant coach Pierre Webo, who was subjected to an alleged racist comment by the fourth official that led to Paris St Germain and his team walking off the pitch, said December 8 will be remembered in the fight against racism.
Tuesday's Champions League match in Paris was halted after 13 minutes following an argument on the touchline over the red card shown to Webo and only resumed the following day after the four Romanian officials were replaced.
Webo, a former Cameroon international, said fourth official Sebastian Coltescu disrespected him by referring to him as "the Black one" when pointing out to the referee that he should be sent off for vehemently protesting a decision.
"We are now going to have the day before December 8 and the day after. It will be remembered," Webo, 38, told BBC Sport in an interview published on Friday.
"It was a tough day, very tough. It's very stressful, I saw the doctor to give me some pills to sleep.
"I don't want people to focus on me... it will be a shame if I'm remembered for this. I'm ashamed of it, to be truthful. These two or three days have been the most difficult of my career."
/origin-imgresizer.tntsports.io/2020/12/10/2952654-60609008-2560-1440.png)
Nightmare for Real and Barca as Mbappe and Neymar to stay at PSG - Euro Papers
Players and a new set of officials took a knee before the match resumed on Wednesday, with PSG winning 5-1, and Webo said more actions like this would force European soccer's governing body UEFA to take stricter action in racism-related incidents.
UEFA said it will conduct a "thorough investigation".
"Can you imagine if you have two, three, four games like that - stopping games because of this kind of thing? I think they (UEFA) are going to move," added Webo.
"We showed that we will do that. It's not the ref who is going to stop it, it's the players.
"I think the most important thing is the solidarity with the players... What message we sent the world."
Related Topics
Share this article