KAMARA: SLAVIA PLAYER CALLED ME A MONKEY
In powerful statement that shames the game, Gers ace reveals details of sickening verbal attack by Kudela
RANGERS star Glen Kamara has insisted Slavia Prague racist Ondrej Kudela called him a ‘f ***** g monkey’.
The Finnish midfielder broke his silence on the incident that marred Thursday night’s Europa League last-16 tie with the Czech side.
Kamara laid out the full horror of the abuse that shamed football and blasted the Slavia player for attempting to cover up his racism.
He said: “There is no place for racism or any form of bigotry in football.
“If UEFA genuinely wants to ‘show racism the red card’, then it’s time to stop the tokenism and take a zero-tolerance approach.
“As a player I do not expect myself, nor any other to have to tolerate racial hatred on or off
ONE look at his face said it all. And yet the more Connor Goldson spoke yesterday, the more recognisable his pain became.
This was not just about what was said to Glen Kamara in the dying embers of Rangers’ Europa League campaign, although the emotions were still running high.
No, this was an outpouring of years of hurt and disgust. Feelings built up through a catalogue of bitter personal experiences. Sadness and tiredness too. Upset by the twisted ugliness of racism and exhausted by having the same pointless conversations over and over while knowing deep down he’s wasting his own breath.
Boxes may be ticked, lip service is paid and sound bites are thrown around along with mock outrage.
But the scourge is never removed. Instead, it’s only ever hidden somewhere beneath the surface until something happens, as it did when Slavia Prague boiled over at Ibrox, and it all comes spewing back out into focus. Goldson has seen it all before. But that makes it no less traumatic.
“It will never be eradicated,” was how he put it yesterday when asked if some good might somehow come from whatever vileness Ondrej Kudela whispered into Kamara’s ear.
“There are so many token gestures out there. I’ll be honest, taking a knee is a token gesture from the higher authorities. Take a knee to make it look like they’re doing something to help but they are not doing anything because when these things happen there’s no consequence.
“There might be a fine but it’s never enough. You get fined more for showing an advertisement on a pair of underwear than you do for being racist or having a group of supporters or a player being racist towards someone and it’ll never change.”
Little wonder then Goldson has lost patience waiting for the world to change. On Thursday it was replaced by undiluted fury and that sense of inner rage will be going nowhere soon. Asked to describe his feelings a clearly emotional Goldson said: “Anger. Anger more than anything.
“It was scenes you should never see on a football pitch but I was just proud of the way the whole team and the whole club handled the situation. From top to bottom I think we handled it really strongly and backed Glen to the hilt and I always will because I have such a strong relationship with him.”
Another question followed, clumsily framed around what was ‘allegedly’ said to his team mate and whether the reaction it provoked is indicative of the sense of unity which bonds Steven Gerrard’s team together, causing a further drain on the reserves of Goldson’s tolerance.
He replied: “It wasn’t ‘allegedly’ said. It was said.
“Yeah, possibly. It shows togetherness and the tightness of the group but it shouldn’t need something like that to show how tight-knitted we are as a football group. I’m disgusted by what
happened. I know it was said 100 per cent. I didn’t hear it myself but I know how Glen is. I know the individual he is.
“In two-and-a-half years I don’t think I’ve ever seen him be angry or be emotional in any kind of way, so for him to get like that, I know something was said and I believe him 100 per cent.
“That’s why I reacted in the way I did. The player couldn’t even look me in my eyes or speak to me. I’ve never been so angry on a football pitch.
“I’ll be honest I completely lost my cool and for the remainder of the game all I wanted to do was hurt someone. I’ve never been like that before on a football pitch.”
It’s not often a sportsman speaks with such honesty. Or with such profound sadness.
Goldson went on: “I just wish that it wouldn’t happen. We are in an age now where I feel a lot has moved forward but, at the same time, when it comes to social media so much has moved backwards.
“You have the incident on the pitch where you’re already angry. You come into the changing room, boys look at their phones and you are seeing all sorts of emojis of racism from sections of their fans and it’s just hard to take.
“You’ll never understand how hard it is to take but for us, you work so hard to get in a position where you become a professional footballer – it’s hard enough as it is – and then you do make it and you still have to carry on with the abuse that comes at you.”
Goldson was later asked if Rangers will recover from all this rawness and compose themselves in time for tomorrow’s next big love in at Celtic Park.
“Of course we will,” he said. “The Old Firm speaks for itself and no one will need any motivation to get up for it. There’s a lot of emotions around the training ground today especially after seeing their statement. It just disgusts me really.
“But we’ll recover today and I’m sure we’ll have a meeting of some sort this afternoon to speak about the weekend. Then we’ll be in training tomorrow, work on our game plan and be ready to go on Sunday.
“We need to make sure we’re victorious because we know how much it means to our fans and how much it means to the whole group inside this building.
“When I joined the football club the message from every fan I met was ‘please beat Celtic’. It’s obviously the biggest fixture in Scotland but it was about winning that one game. I think we have turned that around by winning the whole season.”
It’s been quite some battle for Goldson and Rangers to drag themselves up to this point of crossing the city’s divide as champions. But some struggles – those which really matter – show no end in sight.