UEFA opened a disciplinary case on Wednesday against Sébastian Coltescu, the fourth Romanian referee of the PSG-Istanbul Basaksehir match, and assistant referee Octavian Sovre.
On December 8, the Champions League meeting between the capital club and the Istanbul team was interrupted in the 13th minute following the remarks of this 4th referee against Achille Webo, the assistant coach of the Turkish club.
The latter had been hurt to be designated as "the black" in Romanian ("negru") by one of the referees of the meeting.
Achille Webo had nominated and accused Sebastian Coltescu, but subsequent analysis of the recording by several Romanian media had instead shifted the suspicion to assistant referee Octavia Sovre.
The meeting, which has meanwhile become a symbol of the fight against racism in sport and society, finally resumed the next day for the remaining 77 minutes, with a new referee team.
Banners had been deployed at the Parc des Princes, the players had dropped to one knee, and PSG had won 5-1 to finish first in their group and qualify for the round of 16.
The disciplinary committee can judge the investigator
The UEFA disciplinary investigator submitted his report on Thursday in which he indicates that the 4th referee did not make comments with racist overtones.
But at the same time, he ordered the prosecution of two of the arbitrators for "a potential violation" of article 11 of the rules of the instance relating to "general principles of conduct" and which prohibited insults.
However, in his conclusions, the investigator does not invoke article 14 which relates precisely to "racist or discriminatory conduct".
The disciplinary committee of the European body which will decide in fine will necessarily rely on this report but it could also decide otherwise and consider that the comments were indeed racist.
Response in two to three weeks.
