One of the small bonuses from empty stadiums is that we can hear what is said between the players, while that could also help explain just what happened to provoke the mess between PSG and Basaksehir tonight.
We could see on the TV cameras that something was clearly said by the fourth official to the Turkish bench which promoted a furious reaction before Demba Ba was sent off for confronting the match official who made the comments.
It’s pretty clear that something dreadful was said because both teams united to walk off the pitch and it looks like the game will be restarted without that match official in place, so this is going to be a huge mess for UEFA to sort out.
READ MORE: Video: Astonishing scenes as PSG vs Basaksehir interrupted and red card dished out over racism claims against the assistant referee
The excellent Get French Football News Twitter feed has given an indication to what was said during the incident, so it does give us a better idea of what may have happened here:
Pierre Webo, former Cameroonian attacker, was the assistant coach & individual sent off & who is understood to have been the victim of racist language on the part of the 4th official. Demba Ba led his teammates to refuse to continue play.
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) December 8, 2020
Pierre Webo after being sent off to the 4th official: “Why did you say n*gro, why did you say n*gro?”
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) December 8, 2020
Demba Ba immediately after: “You never say: “This white guy.” Why when you mention a black guy, you have to say this black guy.”
One of the officials responds that it is a miscommunication relating to “Romanian language.”
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) December 8, 2020
On review of the footage, Kylian Mbappé is one of the most vocal against the incident & encouraging his PSG colleagues to follow the Istanbul Basaksehir players off of the pitch.
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) December 8, 2020
Presnel Kimpembe picked up on RMC cameras: “WHAT? WHAT? Is he serious? We are heading in. We are heading in. That is it, we are heading in.”
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) December 8, 2020
On review of the footage, the referee, Ovidiu Ha?egan, appears to ask who he should give the red card to from the bench, with 4th official Sebastian Col?escu responding: “ala negru,” which in Romanian can translate to “the black [guy],” provoking the incident that followed.
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) December 8, 2020
Obviously we haven’t heard the last of this and more will emerge in the following days, but it’s the clearest explanation yet of what happened to provoke the incident.
“The evil that is in the world comes out of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. One the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn’t the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill.”
Albert Camus
This scandal shows how good intentions (fighting against actual racism) can turn into evil actions against an innocent man in a certain context. In Romanian the word for black is “negru” and has no racist meaning here. We as a people have no history of racism towards black people.
The black guy was wearing a jacket and couldn’t be identified by the number on the t-shirt. That’s why the Romanian referee identified him as the black guy since he was the only black African man out there.
The guy then heard the Romanian word and thought it was the racial slur “negro”. He was right to be angry on the moment because he was confused. But he should have calmed down once the issue was ecplained to him.
The reaction of the officials was utterly totalitatian and Stalinistic, calling him a racist and disfussing sanctions before having an actual investigation. They use the presumption of “guilt” instead of the presumption of “innocence”.
And Erdogan’s Turkey should really back off since they have a genocide on their hands killing over two million innocent people.
“The evil that is in the world comes out of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. One the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn’t the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill.”
Albert Camus
This scandal shows how good intentions (fighting against actual racism) can turn into evil actions against an innocent man in a certain context. In Romanian the word for black is “negru” and has no racist meaning here. We as a people have no history of racism towards black people.
The black guy was wearing a jacket and couldn’t be identified by the number on the t-shirt. That’s why the Romanian referee identified him as the black guy since he was the only black African man out there.
The guy then heard the Romanian word and thought it was the racial slur “negro”. He was right to be angry on the moment because he was confused. But he should have calmed down once the issue was ecplained to him.
The reaction of the officials was utterly totalitatian and Stalinistic, calling him a racist and disfussing sanctions before having an actual investigation. They use the presumption of “guilt” instead of the presumption of “innocence”.
And Erdogan’s Turkey should really back off since they have a genocide on their hands killing over two million innocent people and they never admited or apologized for their crimes against humanity.
I don’t understand how describing someone to identify them is racist. If there were 10 black people and 1 white person, and the official identified the person who should be sent off by saying ‘the white person’, I don’t think anyone would bat an eyelid.
Obviously if he thinks he’s been called something derogatory beginning with the letter then that is completely different, but a simple explanation of the translation should be enough.
Totally ridiculous, and I’d put good money on his career being ended because he will be a scapegoat to please.