Football: Qatar Friendly Match

The New Zealand national football team canceled a friendly match against Qatar at halftime in Vienna on Monday, accusing a Qatari player of racially insulting one of its players. “Michael Boxall was racially abused in the first half by a Qatari playerThe New Zealand Federation tweeted to justify the failure of its players to return to the field after the end of the first half. “The referee did not react, so the team chose not to return to play the second half of the match», adds the tweet.

Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz, coach of the Qatar national team, spoke in English on the Qatar Cup channel. “To our great surprise, the New Zealand captain came to see us to tell us that his team would not restart“, He said. “It appears that the two players exchanged words on the field. Who started and who responded? Only they know (…) There are no witnesses, the referee heard nothing, and neither did the benches. It’s just a fight between two players“He finished.”Let’s now let the football authorities decide (…) But without witnesses, I don’t know how FIFA will be able to decide.“Queiroz added.

New Zealand led 1-0 in the second half. On the same Monday, a friendly match between Ireland U21s and Kuwait U22s, also in Austria, was also permanently stopped after the Irish denounced racist slurs 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.