Qatar winger Yusuf Abdurisag has denied using a racial slur in Monday’s friendly against New Zealand, adding that he was actually the victim, not the perpetrator of racial abuse.
New Zealand refused to return for the second half due to claims that Abdurisag had racially abused defender Michael Boxall, who is of Samoan heritage.
“Michael Boxall was racially abused during the first half of the game by a Qatari player,” a statement from New Zealand’s Twitter account read. “No official action was taken so the team have agreed not to come out for the second half of the match.”
The match would be abandoned with New Zealand ahead 1-0.
On Tuesday, the Qatar Football Association (QFA) released a statement supporting Abdurisag and claiming that he was the player racially abused during the match.
“QFA’s player Yusuf Abdurisag Yusuf confirmed an exchange of words with an opponent – in the heat of the moment – shortly before halftime,” it read. “Yusuf stressed that no racial or discriminatory language was used or directed towards any player of the New Zealand team.
“In the contrary, Yusuf stressed that, in fact, he himself was racially abused during the match. In any case, the QFA takes the allegations incredibly seriously and stands against racism in all its forms. The experience of racism should never be trivialized and remains a serious problem within the game. As such, the QFA encourages the international football community to do more to tackle racism and discrimination on and off the pitch.”
Abdurisag was included in Qatar’s roster for the Gold Cup, which kicks off Saturday.
QFA president Jassim bin Rashid Al Buenain added in a statement: “Everyone at QFA stands with Yusuf Abdurisag Yusuf and strongly condemns the unwarranted attention he has received in the past 24 hours.”
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