Serious allegations: New Zealand and Ireland cancel two international matches against Qatar and Kuwait

Serious allegations have been made
New Zealand and Ireland cancel their international matches against Qatar and Kuwait

June 20, 2023 at 11:53 am

The national football teams from New Zealand and Qatar will meet in Austria, in addition to the U-21 team from Ireland and the U-22 team from Kuwait. Both international matches ended early because one of the teams refused to continue due to allegations of racism. The accused sees it differently.

June 19 will go down in football history as one of the rare days when two international matches were cancelled. Initially, the New Zealand senior team refused to play against Qatar in the second half. Shortly afterwards, the match between Ireland U21s and Kuwait U22s could not be completed because the Irish refused to continue. The trigger in both cases: racist remarks. This is what the New Zealand and Irish associations reported. Both matches were played on neutral soil in Austria.

“We never want to give up a game, but some issues go beyond football and it’s important to take a stand,” New Zealand Football Association president Andrew Pragnell said. Sports Minister Grant Robertson also praised the decision to cancel. Centre-back Michael Boxall was reportedly racially abused by a Qatari footballer at the end of the first half when the score was 1-0 in favor of the New Zealanders. Although his teammates reported the incident to referee Manuel Schötengruber, he did not take any action.

Exactly what was said on the pitch in Ritzing, Austria, remains unclear. Pragnell: “I won’t go into detail about the nature of the comment but it was really serious and in my opinion despicable and has absolutely no place on a football pitch or anywhere else, so I don’t want to repeat it.” The team expressed its solidarity with Boxall and decided not to resume the match after the end of the first half.

Qatar’s coach did not hear anything

The Qatari Federation is much shorter in its official statements regarding abandoning the game. “New Zealand has withdrawn from the friendly match,” the English-speaking person wrote. Qatar Football Association Twitter accountWithout giving reasons for this – including various comments asking for clarification and referring to accusations of racism. On the Qatar News Agency website Qena By late morning German time, there was only one advance notice indicating the match.

Independent government news website “Doha News”, who has been temporarily banned by Qatar in the past over critical reporting, writes about the incident and the allegations. She says that Qatar national team coach Carlos Queiroz was surprised by the cancellation of the tournament and now hopes that the International Federation will take care of the matter. According to Queiroz, he did not notice any racist comments, and according to Queiroz, the referees did not hear anything of the kind. However, Doha News also links a video clip that is supposed to show the incident. This shows a verbal altercation between footballers from both teams and a New Zealand player appears to say to the referee: “The referee, he’s not allowed to say something like that.”

The Kuwait Society explains abortion in a completely different way

A similar incident appears to have occurred in a U-International match between Ireland and Kuwait. As the Irish Federation announced on Twitter, a substitute player was subjected to a racist insult from a Kuwaiti player. The Irish said that the incident had been reported to FIFA and UEFA. the “The Irish Examiner” Reports said the insult came when the score was 3-0 to Ireland in the second half.

The Kuwait Football Association also announced the cancellation, but for a different reason. Accordingly, the match was not played until the end “due to excessive rigidity and tension between the players.” The duel was stopped in the 70th minute “to protect the players from injuries.” There are also words of praise for the “discipline and commitment” shown by the Kuwaiti footballers who gathered for a training camp in Austria.

The Kuwait Football Association responded in a tweet on Twitter Detailed statement Respond defensively to Irish FA allegations. Reports of racial slurs are “false and categorically denied” before again citing excessive cruelty as the alleged motive for the demolition. Kuwaiti football players are characterized by “discipline, good morals and exemplary behaviour”: “None of them is allowed to behave inappropriately towards others.”