New Zealand, Ireland abandon respective men's soccer matches after alleged racist abuse
A pair of international men's soccer matches were each abandoned Monday after two teams refused to take the pitch following separate instances of alleged racial abuse.
New Zealand Football confirmed that its side refused to take the pitch for the second half of its match against Qatar; and in the other match, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) said its under-21 squad walked off the pitch following an alleged racist remark made by a Kuwaiti player toward a substitute.
Both matches were taking place in Austria, in separate cities. New Zealand was playing at the Sonnenseestadion in Ritzing and Ireland was playing at Parktherme Arena in Bad Radkersburg.
"Michael Boxall was racially abused during the first half of the game by a Qatari player," the New Zealand federation said Monday in a tweet. "No official action was taken so the team have agreed not to come out for the second half of the match."
The FAI said it "does not tolerate any racism towards any of our players or staff and will be reporting this serious matter to FIFA and UEFA."
What happened in the New Zealand-Qatar match?
According to the New Zealand Herald, the incident happened just before halftime, at around the 40th minute. Qatari winger Yusuf Abdurisag went to the ground after he made a pass and sought a foul after a body check by defensive midfielder and New Zealand captain Joe Bell. The referee awarded a free kick and Bell gave a slight shove to Abdurisag. Boxall, a defender who also plays for the MLS' Minnesota United, went over to confront Abdurisag, who pointed and said something that upset Boxall and a number of All Whites players.
A small skirmish developed, with New Zealand's players visibly upset and Qatari's players trying to separate Abdurisag away from the confrontation. Austrian referee Manuel Schüttengruber had an extended conversation with Bell but decided not to take any action.
New Zealand led 1-0 at the half, after a 17th minute goal from midfielder Marko Stamenic.
What happened in the Ireland-Kuwait U-21 match?
According to Sky Sports, Ireland manager Jim Crawford removed his players from the pitch as soon as the alleged incident happened in the second half. The FAI did not specify the identity of the player who was the target of the alleged abuse.
Ireland led the match 3-0 at the half, following goals by Ollie O'Neill, Conor Carty and Aidomo Emakhu. Ireland was playing in its final friendly of its June international camp in Austria to help the side prepare for European Championship qualifying matches in September.
These are just the latest cases of a troubling trend of racism in soccer
The most recent notable case was Real Madrid's star Brazilian forward Vinícius Júnior, who was met with racist taunts before getting off a team bus May 21 ahead of a game at Valencia. Then, during the match, fans continued the taunts and directed chants of "mono" — Spanish for "monkey" — at him in the 1-0 Valencia victory.
After the game, Vinícius posted a message on Instagram in which he called Spain a "country of racists" and called repeated actions of racism against him "inhuman." He also called on Spain and La Liga to do more to eradicate these behaviors, of which he has been the target several times.
La Liga president Javier Tebas Medrano, however, said in a response that it was "unfair" to label the country and the Spanish football league as racist.
On Thursday, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said Vinícius has agreed to join a new task force to tackle racism in soccer in the latest effort to rid the sport of a rash of racist abuses against players.