The last game of Group H of the UEFA Champions League group stage of this season was held at the Parc de la Princes in Paris on the 8th. Istanbul team challenged Paris Saint-Germain away.
Shortly after the start of the game, Istanbul players left the strike because they were dissatisfied with the racist remarks of the fourth official. Istanbul’s official social media post said, “Say no to racism!”, accompanied by a black fist and a white fist expression, which was also retweeted by Greater Paris officials.
In the 14th minute of the first half of the game, the score of the two teams was still 0:0. At this time, the assistant coach of Istanbul from Cameroon, Webb, was suddenly emotional and was shown a red card by the referee for protesting loudly because he was dissatisfied with the penalty.
Istanbul players became more excited and surrounded the referee to protest. After that, the team left the field first and returned to the locker room, and the Greater Paris players soon left the field.
It is reported that after the exit incident, UEFA proposed to exchange the VAR referee with the fourth official, and the two teams played the game first, but Istanbul did not agree with this decision.
According to AFP, the incident was caused by the use of racist terms against Istanbul assistant coach Weber in a dialogue with referee Hategan, a fourth official from Romania.
After the strike, Turkish President Erdogan posted on social media, saying, “We unconditionally oppose racism in sports and all fields, and believe that UEFA will take the necessary measures”.
The president of Istanbul Club said that if UEFA did not deal with the fourth official, they would not agree to resume the game.
UEFA issued a statement on the 9th that it would conduct a comprehensive investigation into the incident and decided that the two teams would make up the night of the 9th local time, and the match would continue from the 14th minute of the first half. The lineup of both sides must be the same as before the suspension of the game on the 8th, but a new refereeing team will be adopted.
