The fourth official calls a coach “black” and PSG-Basaksehir is suspended

The match in the Parc des Princes between Paris-Saint-Germain and Turkish Basaksehir did not even take a quarter of an hour. Members of the Ottoman bench angrily protested a foul called by Romanian referee Ovidiu Hategan. In the band, the fourth collegiate, Sebastián Coltescu, also Romanian, contacted his colleague. He had heard something punishable. To request the expulsion of Pierre Webó, attached to the Basaksehir coach, he said: “Throw the black out”. That term, racist, paralyzed the Parisian stadium, in which without an audience everything can be heard. The Group H match of the Champions League was suspended.

The fourth official pointed his finger and defined with that word Pierre Webó, a former Osasuna player and now a member of the Ottoman team’s technical team. ‘Black’ in Romanian is pronounced ‘negru’. Webó, who has played in Spain and Uruguay, was outraged to hear that they qualified him that way. “Why do you call me black?” One of his footballers, the French of Senegalese origin Demba Ba, also faced the referee: “When you point to a white player, you don’t say ‘that white player’. But when you refer to a black player, you say ‘that black player.

Immediately a tumult was mounted and Basaksehir left the field when barely a quarter of an hour had been played and the scoreboard reflected a zero tie. The fourth official tried to justify himself and said that he had not used the term “black” as a derogatory or racist qualifier. He did not convince anyone.

Discussions and negotiations then began. With the teams in the dressing room, the UEFA delegate tried to convince the Turks to return to the field. But Basaksehir demanded the withdrawal of the fourth referee. It was even raised that Sebastián Coltescu was replaced by one of the referees present in the VAR (video arbitration) room, installed in a truck. But apparently that did not satisfy the Turks either. They did not want that referee in anything related to the game. Two referees sit in the VAR. And there is no substitute if one of them has to go to the band of a stadium. Under these circumstances, Basakshir gave up on resuming the match.

But the decision was not his, but the UEFA delegate and the first referee, the Romanian Ovidiu Hategan. The PSG players returned to the dressing room tunnel to jump back onto the pitch, although some of them preferred not to do so in solidarity with their rivals. The Turks did not appear. The match did not resume.

From Turkey came the support of the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for the Ottoman team. “I condemn racist insults,” he said. UEFA’s decision will create a precedent. The game resumes today at 6:55 p.m. with new referees. That would mean that UEFA considers that the fourth Turkish referee did address Webó in a racist way.