New Zealand refuse to play in Qatar friendly amid racism claims
"A Qatari player used a racial slur towards All Whites defender Michael Boxall after a confrontation between the two players. The racial slur was heard by several New Zealand players, including Boxall," New Zealand Football (NZF), the country's governing soccer body, said in a statement. New Zealand-born Boxall has Samoan heritage.
New Zealand were leading 1-0 after a Marko Stamenic goal in the 16th minute when the incident occurred just before the break. Referee Manuel Schuttengruber had a long discussion with New Zealand captain Joe Bell and soon after blew for half-time.
"No official action was taken so the team have agreed not to come out for the second half of the match," NZF said on social media.
New Zealand Football CEO Andrew Pragnell said the New Zealand players agreed collectively to abandon the game and the governing body fully supported them.
"There is no room for racism in football," he said.
"Certainly we want to reach out to FIFA on this," he later told reporters in Auckland on Tuesday. "You know they have recently established a task force around racism, more needs to be done to protect players from racial attacks on the field.
"There's been some evolution, we don't think it's moving fast enough so we want to contribute to that and so that will be one of our first ports of call."
Qatar coach Carlos Queiroz said his team stood by their player. "Apparently two players exchanged words, and we don't know who was first, who was second, it's only between them," the Portuguese coach told Al-kass Sports Channels.
"The New Zealand players decided to support their team-mate and we also decided to support our player. Let the football authorities make the decision about what happened here."
The Qatar FA said on its Twitter feed that New Zealand had withdrawn from the friendly, without giving any further details. Reuters contacted the governing body for comment.
Ireland's football association (FAI) said the under-21 international was abandoned after a "racist remark" by a Kuwaiti player.
"The FAI does not tolerate any racism towards any of our players or staff and will be reporting this serious matter to FIFA and UEFA," the FAI said on social media.
Kuwait's FA disputed the FAI's claim. "Kuwait Football Association ... categorically rejects such accusations," it said in a statement on social media.
"The match did not reach completion due to excessive roughness and tension between the players. The match was stopped by the referee in the 70th minute to protect the players from potential injuries."
Ireland were leading 3-0 when the match was stopped.
Racism has dominated football headlines in recent months. FIFA president Gianni Infantino recently announced an anti-racism committee led by Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr, who has been the victim of racist abuse in Spain's La Liga.
