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For soccer superstar Neymar of Paris St. Germain, the behavior of the clubs in the racism scandal in the Champions League match against Basaksehir Istanbul was imperative. “In extreme circumstances, you have to put up those signals to see if the world can change a bit,” the Brazilian said after Wednesday’s 5-1 (3-0) victory.
Sign against racism: Neymar (l.)
The match was interrupted on Tuesday after racist statements by the fourth official Sebastián Coltescu and continued the following day. “What happened was unacceptable,” Neymar said: “We live in a time when we cannot accept that a difference is made based on skin color or race.”
Coltescu had sparked the scandal through a statement related to Istanbul assistant coach Pierre Webo to head referee Ovidiu Hategan, where Coltescu referred to Webo as a “black boy”. Both teams left the field in protest.
“Racism has no place in football, in life or in any other sport. Our behavior was perfect,” said Neymar. Before the restart, the players left another mark: all 22 players knelt to make a “Black Lives Matter” gesture.
SID