Football: New Zealanders consider themselves victims of racism, and refuse to continue the match against Qatar

The New Zealand Federation said in a tweet on Twitter: “Michael Boxall was the victim of a racist insult in the first half from a Qatari player,” to justify the failure of its players to return to the field after the end of the first half of the friendly match against Qatar last Monday. Vienna.

The tweet added: “The referee did not react, so the team chose not to return to play the second half of the match.”

Portuguese Carlos Queiroz, coach of the Qatar national team, spoke in English on the Qatari Al Kass channel.

He said: “The biggest surprise for us was that the captain of the New Zealand national team came to see us to tell us that his team would not resume the match.” “It seems that two players exchanged words on the field. Who started and who responded? Only they know (…) There are no witnesses, the referee did not hear anything, and neither did the benches. It is just a quarrel between two players,” he continued.

Queiroz added, “Let us now leave it to the football authorities to make a decision… but without witnesses, I do not know how FIFA will be able to make a decision.” New Zealand led 1-0 in the second half.

On the same Monday, a friendly match between the Ireland Under-21s and Kuwait Under-22s, also in Austria, was also stopped permanently after the Irish denounced racist abuse against one of their substitutes.

The Irish Federation announced that it would refer the matter to FIFA. The Irish led 3-0 at the time of the second half.