EUROPA League
‘UEFA RULING ON THE RACIST SLUR ON KAMARA IS A SAD EXAMPLE’ SAYS TUNDE ADELAKUN
Europe’s football governing body UEFA handed punishment to players involved in an on-field fracas during the Europa League game between Scottish champions Glasgow Rangers and Slavia Prague last month.
On March 18 in Glasgow, Slavia Prague’s Ondrej Kudela had a confrontation which degenerated into a row on the pitch. The Rangers player involved, Glen Kamara was obviously and clearly reacting to something that was said to him and he was not happy. A few of his teammates rallied round and the Prague players also came round. It was an ugly sight.
Later on, it emerged that Kamara, a black Finnish player, claimed to have been racially abused verbally by the 34-year-old Czech player Kudela and it did not go down well with him.
A lot has been said about this, culminating in UEFA charging and handing a 10-match ban to Kudela for racist behaviour, and a three-match ban to Glen Kamara for his reaction to the racist slur cast on him.
Racial awareness activist ‘Tunde Adelakun has leant his weight on the matter, saying that UEFA’s actions in this matter was ‘an absolute joke which highlights what we have always been saying about why we still have racism operating actively in our sport’.
Adelakun, a British-Nigerian who plies his trade as Chief Scout to Nigeria’s national football team has always advocated for the football authorities to do more than they are doing to eradicate racism from football.
‘Only a few days ago, I called on the authorities to wade in seriously and decisively on this matter. We know racism in football is an extension of racism in the wider society. But football can play its part in educating every facet of the tribe on the effects of racism’.
There has been wide acclaim against the ban handed to Kudela and the impact of the ban, and Tunde Adelakun believes it was not enough and will be ‘no deterrent in any way, against such abuse being repeated in future.
‘UEFA had a big opportunity to put its foot down on this matter, with the Kudela case, and unfortunately did not take it. A 10-game ban for calling a fellow human being a ‘f***ing monkey’! That has got to be the biggest joke in the land’ the author and journalist turned coach exclaimed.
‘A 10-game ban will not stop the next player from saying worse things to a fellow player in future. If you slap him with a 1-2 year ban and punish his club for not giving enough education to their players – a big fine, a points deduction or something really heavy, then everyone, and I mean everybody in the football tribe will watch over their respective shoulders and caution each other on what is right and what is wrong’.
UEFA went on to ban Kamara for 3 matches, for reacting to the racial slur. When Adelakun was asked on this, his reaction was ‘Let me just laugh, I can’t comment otherwise I will say what I should not say’.
Adelakun has been calling on the football bodies to act, not only in punishing culprits but also providing a support system for players that were racially abused, and he took this chance to say it again.
‘I have said that players who are called names should be supported. By banning Kamara, you are punishing him for reacting to being called a ‘f****ing monkey’, but you are not supporting him and how he has been feeling since he was called that derogatory name. And that is wrong. Kamara is Finnish but we know he has Sierra Leonian roots.
‘In this case, I would love to know what the Finnish Football Federation have done to support his mental health having been called what he was called.
‘And I ask the question, if he was an African player, should we not see an organisation like CAF coming to his aid, supporting him and fighting the punishment being meted out to him?’ Adelakun, the voice of mental mindset awareness known as TundeTalks concluded.
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim defended under-fire goalkeeper Andre Onana following the Cameroonian’s costly mistakes in his side’s 2-2 draw at Olympique Lyonnais in their Europa League quarter-final first leg on Thursday.
Onana allowed Thiago Almada’s free kick to squirm past him in the Groupama Stadium and was also at fault for Rayan Cherki’s last-gasp equaliser that denied United victory.
Since the start of last season, no Premier League club’s goalkeeper has made more errors leading to goals being conceded in all competitions than Onana.
“It can happen, if you play football, you play a lot of games, you can make mistakes,” Amorim said. “If you look at the season, I make more mistakes than them during these last games and these last months.
“The other thing is we have one more game to change everything and that should be our focus.
“The best thing is to look at the goals, all the actions that Andre had in the game, this is the best way to help any player, it’s to focus on the game, what happened, what we need to improve.”
United nonetheless remain unbeaten in this season’s Europa League — the only side to do so this term — after goals from Leny Yoro and Joshua Zirkzee put them on course for a potential victory.
The team, who are 13th in the English Premier League standings, still go into next week’s second leg in Manchester as favourites to book a spot in the last four.
“It was an entertaining game,” Amorim added. “We had some difficulty in the first half trying to press, because Lyon played in a different way. Then, in the middle of the first half and especially the second, we controlled the game.
“The second leg will be a different game. At home, our fans want us to press all the time.”
-Reuters
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Manchester United will be without defender Harry Maguire and midfielder Manuel Ugarte for Thursday’s Europa League last-16 clash with Real Sociedad, coach Ruben Amorim said, as he seeks to salvage an otherwise dire season.
The pair were left out of an already depleted squad after picking up injuries in last weekend’s penalty shootout defeat to Fulham that dumped them out of the FA Cup to compound the misery of lying 14th in the Premier League.
“We are being careful with them because at the moment we cannot afford to lose any more players for a long time,” Amorim told a press conference on Wednesday before the Europa League first leg game in Spain.
“We are taking care of them at Carrington (training ground) and they cannot play this game because it will be a greater risk.”
The coach, who joined United in November, stressed the importance of balancing youth development with the needs of the squad during a worsening injury crisis.
“I’m trying to cope with everything. When I do my squad, I’m trying to think about every aspect, of the formation of the (new) kids, of the squad and not if it will look really well with the fans and the media,” Amorim said.
Altay Bayindir, Tom Heaton, Jonny Evans, Kobbie Mainoo, Luke Shaw and Mason Mount remain on individual rehabilitation programmes.
Lisandro Martinez, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament, and Amad Diallo, who suffered an ankle ligament injury in training, are also sidelined.
-Reuters
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Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes scored a last-gasp winner to secure a 2-1 victory over Rangers in the Europa League group stage on Thursday and Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min struck twice in his team’s 3-2 win at Hoffenheim.
United climbed to fourth in the standings on 15 points going into the last round of matches, in a strong position to reach the knockout phase along with Spurs who are sixth with 14 points.
The English side broke the deadlock early in the second half when Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland misjudged a Christian Eriksen corner, sending the ball into his own net.
Rangers fought back with an equaliser from substitute Cyril Dessers two minutes from time before Fernandes struck in added time to give United all three points.
In Germany, James Maddison opened the scoring for Spurs in the third minute and Son doubled the lead in a first half the visitors dominated.
Hoffenheim pulled one back in the 68th minute through Anton Stach’s counter-attack goal. Son restored Spurs’ two-goal lead in the 77th minute before the hosts’ David Mokwa scored to give his side late hope but the game ended in a narrow win for the English side.
Lazio stayed top of the standings with a commanding 3-1 home victory over Real Sociedad to become the first team to qualify for the round of 16.
Mario Gila struck after five minutes and when Sociedad’s Aihen Munoz was shown a second yellow card on the half-hour mark, Lazio immediately seized the advantage.
Mattia Zaccagni quickly doubled the lead and Taty Castellanos effectively ended the match with a third for the hosts. Ander Barrenetxea scored a late consolation goal for Sociedad.
Eintracht Frankfurt moved closer to securing a top-eight spot with a 2-0 home win over Hungarian side Ferencvaros thanks to second-half goals from Can Uzun and Hugo Ekitike. They are second in the standings with 16 points, three ahead of ninth-placed Galatasaray.
A late goal from Troy Parrott gave AZ Alkmaar a 1-0 home win over AS Roma and Olympiacos earned a 1-0 victory at Porto thanks to a late goal from Ayoub El Kaabi.
Dutch side Alkmaar can still reach the top eight with 11 points sitting in 14th place while Roma’s nine points place them 21st, close to the bottom of the playoff section.
Fenerbahce and Olympique Lyonnais played out an intense goalless draw in Istanbul, leaving the French side in a strong position to progress to fifth place in the group on 14 points.
-Reuters
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