THE LaLiga game between Valencia and Cadiz on Sunday was temporarily suspended after racism allegations prompted a walk-off.
Mouctar Diakhaby of Valencia was left incensed at the allegedly racist nature of comments made by Juan Cala during the first-half at Estadio Ramon de Carranza.
Both players were handed yellow cards by the referee as team-mate Gabriel Paulista attempted to calm the angry French defender down.
But the seriousness of the allegations was evident as Diakhaby, 24, walked off the pitch in disgust.
Los Che players followed their colleague off before Cadiz players also returned to the dressing rooms and the game was temporarily suspended.
Valencia delegate David Rangel was seen talking to central defender Cala, 31, as the game was halted for several minutes.
The Cadiz team began to return to the pitch as the visitors agreed to resume the match, which they claim came after the threat of a punishment.
Diakhaby did not play on however, and was substituted for centre-back Hugo Guillamon.
Before the second kick-off, with the clock at 29 minutes and the scores tied at 1-1, the team released a statement condemning racism.
Valencia tweeted: “No to racism.
“The team have held a meeting and decided to continue the game, in order to fight for the honour of the club, but denounce racism of any kind.”
Club captain Jose Gaya said after the game, which ended 2-1 to Cadiz, that the team were told to return to the pitch or face forfeiting the result.
He said: “Diakhaby told us that he was insulted and at Valencia we condemn that.
“We left the pitch because of that but they told us that we had to go back out, that if we did not they would take three points and maybe more off us.
“Diakhaby told us to go back out and that is why we went out. He wanted us to go out, without his permission we would not have done it.
“He wasn’t ready to play on. He was sunk. It’s a very ugly insult, I’m not going to repeat it.”
Cadiz boss Alvaro Cervera insisted he ‘believed his player’ after Cala was accused.
But Valencia coach Javi Gracia criticised the handling of the situation from the LaLiga authorities.
He stated: “They told us that we could be sanctioned [if refusing to play] and at that moment we spoke with Diakhaby.
“He said that he did not feel ready to play but that he understood that we had to go out to play to avoid the possible punishment.
“I want to take this opportunity to say that the referee had no record of what happened, neither he nor his assistants heard what had really happened and, in this situation, they were forced to continue the game.
“We are very sorry for the situation and we all condemn these incidents.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
