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Benfica manager Jorge Jesus said complaining about racism is “very fashionable” when asked about the Paris St Germain and Istanbul Basaksehir players who left the pitch during the Champions League tie.
The Group H match in Paris on Tuesday night was stopped in the 13th minute after allegedly the fourth official, Romanian Sebastian Coltescu, had made racist comments about Basaksehir’s assistant coach, Pierre Webo.
“I don’t know exactly what happened, but these days all this about racism is very fashionable,” Jesus told a press conference ahead of Thursday’s Europa League game against Standard Liege.
“As a citizen, I have the right to think my way and to form a concrete opinion once I know what happened at that time.”
Webo accused the referee of making a racist comment after being shown a red card and, following Basaksehir’s complaints, PSG players followed their opponents off the field in the 23rd minute and the Turkish champions refused to reappear.
UEFA later announced that the game would be completed tonight, with different match officials, and that it had launched an investigation into the incident.
“These days, anything you say against a black person is a sign of racism, and the same for a white person is not a sign of racism,” Jesus added.
✊🏿 ✊🏻 We are a family! #NoToRasicm https://t.co/GO1uaZcnyb
– Istanbul Başakşehir (@ ibfk2014) December 9, 2020
“It is a wave that is taking over the world. But maybe there was racism because I don’t know what they said to that coach ”.
Jesús (66) is in his second stint as Benfica coach after signing a two-year contract in August, after having been in charge for six years until 2015.
Benfica have already qualified for the last 16 of the Europa League and could finish first in the group with victory in Belgium.
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