It’s always a bold move when a club comes out to claim their player is the victim when they’ve been accused of racism, and it looks like Slavia Prague have extra questions to answer after their initial reaction to Ondrej Kudela being accused of making racist comments to Glen Kamara in a recent game.
It appears that some primitive justice has already taken place with Kamara getting his own back after the final whistle and also via Gareth Bale’s elbow, but UEFA have clearly decided that the accusations were proven and a hefty ban gas been dished out to Kudela:
Slavia Prague's Ond?ej Kúdela banned for ten UEFA club and representative team competition matches for racist behaviour. Includes the one-match provisional suspension served in last week's EL quarter-final v Arsenal. Glen Kamara banned for three games for assaulting a player.
— James Olley (@JamesOlley) April 14, 2021
That will rule him out of their Europa League second-leg with Arsenal on Thursday, while it’s also going to prompt another debate over what is an acceptable punishment for racists in the game, but this is an interesting comparison to ponder:
10: The number of games Slavia Prague's Ondrej Kudela is banned for after "racist behaviour".
12: The number of games Atletico Madrid's Kieran Trippier was suspended for after telling a close friend he was moving to Spain, breaching betting guidelines. https://t.co/vKRRqZG6PB
— Colin Millar (@Millar_Colin) April 14, 2021
It’s a tough one for Kamara’s ban but the authorities can’t be seen as turning a blind-eye towards assaults on other players either, but at least it hasn’t been brushed under the carpet for once.