Diplomatic row over Rangers’ star abuse escalates in Prague
The diplomatic row over abuse faced by Rangers star Glen Kamara from a crowd of children in Prague escalated yesterday as the president of the Czech football association denied the booing was racist.
Petr Fousek, who has also held senior positions at Uefa, praised the atmosphere at the Europa League game between Sparta Prague and the Ibrox side on Thursday when the crowd consisted of 10,000 children let in after Sparta were ordered to play the match behind closed doors due to racist abuse during a match against Monaco in August.
Fousek, 58, said yesterday: “I’d like to take this opportunity to appreciate the atmosphere that the children created in the Letna Stadium, which was really amazing. Congratulations to Sparta on the idea of filling the stands with children. As president of the Czech FA, we’ve been focused on combating any manifestations of intolerance.
“So I completely reject a similar generalisation of the problem of racism. It is unacceptable to overturn the reality that I saw at Letna into what I subsequently read about.”
R a n g e r s’ Finnish midfielder Kamara, racially abused last year in a game with Prague’s other main team Slavia, was targeted for booing from the kick- off, prompting manager Steven Gerrard to complain about the young crowd’s conduct. Rangers wrote afterwards to Uefa over Kamara’s treatment and it emerged yesterday that the fallout from the game had sparked a diplomatic row, with British ambassador Nick Archer summoned by Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek. Kamara’s lawyer Aamer Anwar said: “Maybe his government should take the opportunity to address the deep- rooted racism that exists in their country.”
Meanwhile, a match between Dundee United and Ross County provoked claims of racist abuse from supporters of the Highland club yesterday. The Tayside club launched an investigation into the incident when a fan allegedly shouted from the stand after United opened the scoring.
Manager Tam Courts later showed a red anti- racism T- shirt to County fans but his opposing coach Malky Mackay denied there had been racist abuse and said the accounts of the alleged incident remained confused.