The lawyer of Glen Kamara has called for Slavia Prague to be kicked out of the Europa League over the alleged racial abuse aimed at the Rangers star from one of their players and a group of their fans.
Aamer Anwar joined talkSPORT on Monday to hit back at the Czech club’s support of Ondrej Kudela amid claims he racially abused Kamara on the pitch, and urged UEFA to end their ‘tokenism’ approach to the fight against racism.
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Slavia Prague vowed to respect the outcome of investigations into their controversial clash with Rangers, and take action if necessary, in a statement released on Monday, but the Czech league leaders have denied racism accusations against their player, Kudela.
Kamara was pictured reacting angrily after a confrontation with Kudela during last week’s Europa League round of 16 clash, with the Gers man claiming the Slavia player approached him, hand covering his mouth, and uttered: ‘You’re a f****** monkey, you know you are’.
Kudela has denied the allegations, though, instead claiming he said, ‘You’re a f****** guy’.
Slavia, meanwhile, have accused Kamara of punching their player during Thursday’s game, but Kamara insisted Kudela’s version of the events are ‘a complete and utter lie’.
Scenes then escalated over the weekend when a Czech hooligans fan group on Instagram posted a picture that appeared to show Slavia supporters holding a vile homemade banner with a disgusting slur aimed at Kamara, with the club’s president saying he was ‘terribly ashamed’.
And the Rangers player’s lawyer has urged UEFA to throw the book at the club and kick them out of the competition.
“People don’t know Glen Kamara, but he’s a very quiet young man, considered, there’s never any problems with him, he doesn’t ever overreact on the field or off the field,” Aamer Anwar told talkSPORT host Jim White.
“He just doesn’t want to see this happen again. His mother watched it, his family watched it, his friends watched it, it was humiliating and it was horrific for him to be subjected to on the pitch, not from fans but from a fellow so-called professional.
“Slavia Prague were extremely defensive. They came out with a robust statement but it fell apart within seconds of reading it.
“Their response and the response of Kudela after the match was to turn around and say he never said that and what he said to him was ‘you’re an *expletive* guy’ which is a complete utter lie and doesn’t stand up to any form of scrutiny.
“His actions were deliberate, they were premeditated and it was loud enough for Glen’s team-mate to hear what was said.
“Also, when you look at the reaction of the two black players for Slavia Prague standing by, they don’t intervene to help Kudela, you can see on their faces the shock.
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“Glen wants action to be taken and he’s tired of the tokenistic response of the authorities.
“Slavia Prague have not apologised and on top of that they have turned around and said they are an anti-racism team… but we saw the actions of the fans over the weekend, horrific and grotesque banners with derogatory and racist remarks, they were then forced to condemn that. It’s just not good enough.
“I’ll say this very clearly; black players have been saying for a very long time that they have had enough, UEFA is not up to scratch and they do not operate a zero tolerance approach.
“We have not seen robust sanctions taken against players or football teams today, and maybe this is one that might push them into a situation where they need to act.
“It’s not just a question of UEFA, I’m talking to the Scottish Football Association later on today and they have been totally silent.
“Black players and people of colour who watched this game don’t want just the tokenistic response, they don’t just want the back armbands or banners, they want real action to be taken on the ground.
“UEFA up until now have made a great deal about wanting to kick racism out of football and Show Racism the Red Card, and what we’re saying is that it’s time to stop the tokenism and take a zero tolerance approach .
“UEFA’s response sadly seems to be that they’ll wear armbands and fly banners but when it comes to the nitty-gritty they don’t actually deliver.
“The sanctions are minimal – £75,000 or £100,000 fines, that means nothing to the players that have committed these acts. Teams should be kicked out of championships.”
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