Valencia call for more action on racism
Valencia have called on Spain's footballing authorities to do more to tackle racism following the alleged abuse of their player Mouctar Diakhaby on Sunday.
Thevalenciateamwalked off the field during their 2-1 Laliga defeat at Cadiz after defenderdiakhabyclaimed tohavebeenraciallyabused by the home side's Juan Cala. They later returned to complete the game but withoutdiakhaby,whowas substituted. The club said they did not ask the players to play on and they only did so after being informed by therefereeofpotentialsanctions.
Valencia president Anil Murthy said in a strong statementontheclub'swebsite: "In our game against Cadiz, we witnessed a flagrant incident of racism. There is no other way to describe it.
"This type of behaviour should not be tolerated in football and in society in general, and we at Valencia CF condemn racism in any form. We fully support our player. We spoke with Laliga to encourage them to also see their investigation through to the end. This incident cannot be left behind, and cannot be repeated with any other player for any other team.
"Wearesaddenedthat,following the incident, there was no reaction to stop the game and that it was our players who were the ones to leave the field of play. We are proud of the reaction from our team and we still do not understand why Diakhaby, the recipient of this racial insult, received a yellow card. We also do not understand why the players had to return to the pitch due to the regulations not protecting the victims and the team in such cases."