PSG-Basaksehir: Coltescu, who is the racist referee

Sebastián Coltescu’s position is getting complicated by the hour, hand in hand with escalating outrage and shame from UEFA leaders and the world of football in general. The racist expressions directed by the Romanian referee to the Cameroonian Webo in the first minutes of the match between Psg and Basaksehir, interrupted and suspended after the departure of the field by the players of both teams in protest, have raised an inevitable uproar of which Coltescu hardly will come out unscathed. For the Romanian referee, yesterday in the role of fourth referee, the radiation and the abrupt end of a refereeing career that had lasted 16 years, the last act of a nightmare year in which the life of the 43-year-old CRAZE engineer fell. both personally and professionally.

The last fall

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An international referee for 16 years, Coltescu had earned promotion after 355 national championship appearances, where he had built a reputation as tough for his propensity to distribute cards (more than 2,000 of those he waved in his career). At home, however, he did argue over some controversial referees, including a controversial 0-0 between Gaz Metan and Brasov that (between contested penalties and failed expulsions) cost him a suspension for a full championship round. In Europe he had so far accumulated addresses in the Champions and Europa League, but with the racist phrases directed at Basaksehir’s bench he cut his legs. The unanimous repudiation of him was immediate and inevitable, while the Romanian press took the opportunity to recall his past and his recent vicissitudes. Thus it arose that Coltescu ended up in the eye of the hurricane 12 years ago for a suicide attempt in which the press and televisions dug for days, throwing alleged love disappointments and professional envy into the bundles. But it was also known that the last months of Coltescu were a true nightmare, from the death of both parents struck down by an incurable disease to the divorce (the second after 2007) consummated by the will of the now ex-wife. More than an attempt to rehabilitate Coltescu’s image, that of the Romanian press appears to be an attempt to investigate the motives that may have led Craiova’s 43-year-old referee to such a racist attitude.

Unanimous condemnation

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Yes, because in addition to the first testimonies collected by players and staff members of both clubs who witnessed the crime closely, there would also be recordings that strongly nailed Coltescu, apparently taken up several times to address derogatory phrases and expressions towards some Basaksehir players . The term “black” directed at Webo seems to have been only the latest infraction that blew up the Turkish bench and which runs the risk of ending the refereeing career of Coltescu, who at the end of the match was picked up by the UEFA commissioners and taken to the hotel without being able to meet players or journalists. He is said to have admitted to using an unfortunate phrase “out of overconfidence,” but the consequences will be dire. The Romanian federation (Rfr) has officially distanced itself from the incident and reiterated the “firm condemnation of any act or action to racist and xenophobic antecedents”. Meanwhile, Turkish President Erdogan has also spoken out on the matter, condemning the racist sentences against Webo. “We are unconditionally against racism and discrimination in sport and in all areas of life. I think UEFA must necessarily intervene,” Erdogan said on his Twitter account. An official post from the French institutions also arrived, which through the mouth of the Sports Minister Roxana Marcacineanu (of clear Romanian origin) congratulated the players “for having taken a historic decision in the face of an unacceptable attitude of ordinary racism.” Pending the investigation – added Marcacineanu – I can only pay tribute to the strong symbolic meaning of his gesture ”.