Another alleged racist incident in the football world.
After England, Italy regularly or more recently France during the Champions League match between PSG and Istanbul-Basaksehir, it is Germany's turn to be confronted with alleged racist comments.
This Sunday evening, the German Football Association (DFB) confirmed the opening of an investigation into alleged racist remarks by a Union Berlin player on Friday after a Bundesliga match between him and Bayer Leverkusen.
What happened ?
After the final whistle of the match won on Friday by the Union against Leverkusen (1-0), a brief altercation pitted some players from both teams.
It was at that time that the Berliner Florian Hübner would have called "shit Afghan" the German neo-international Nadiem Amiri, whose family is from Afghanistan.
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The club of the player targeted by the insults, however, assured, after the meeting, on Twitter, that the two players had found themselves in the bowels of the stadium and that Nadiem Amiri had "accepted the apologies of the Berlin player [...] after that horrible words were said during a loss of control ”.
Nadiem #Amiri hat die Entschuldigung des Union-Spielers angenommen.
🗯 "Er ist zu mir in die Kabine gekommen. Es sind aus den Emotionen heraus unschöne Worte gefallen, die ihm sehr leid tun. Er hat mir das glaubwürdig versichert, deswegen ist die Sache für mich erledigt."
pic.twitter.com/YZazEU0KkM
- Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@ bayer04fussball) January 16, 2021
The disciplinary commission of the DFB nonetheless summoned all the protagonists of the incident, and its president Anton Nachreiner recalled that any manifestation of racism was intolerable in the Bundesliga: “For us it is an absolute red line, and if it has been proven, there will be sanctions, ”he warned.
Other racist incidents in Germany in 2020
"For me, the matter is settled," Amiri said, without citing Hübner's name.
In addition, the Swiss Union coach Urs Fischer had promised from the first minutes after the incident to take the matter in hand: "We will try to clarify this", he said after the match, "if it really happened like that, I apologize ”.
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An incident that comes less than a year after cries of monkeys were heard in a stadium during a Cup match between Schalke 04 and Hertha Berlin.
Ten days later, on February 14, a Ghanaian defender playing in the German third division was the victim of the same facts coming from a "supporter".
This time, it was the other spectators who directly denounced the author of these cries, allowing the stewards to evacuate him from the enclosure.