Tottenham striker Richarlison was racially abused during Brazil’s 5-1 win over Tunisia on Tuesday. A fan threw a banana at the Brazilian as he celebrated after scoring his team’s second goal of the match. The broadcast showed Richarlison’s teammate Fred kicking the banana. Although the match featured teams from South America and Africa, it was played in Paris.
The Brazil team took pictures before the match while holding a banner against racism. The sign read: “Without our black players, we wouldn’t have stars on our jerseys.” Brazil won the World Cup a record five times.
After the match, Richarlison demanded that action be taken on the matter. “As long as they keep the ‘blah, blah, blah’ and don’t punish, it will continue like this, every day and everywhere,” the player said on Twitter.
FIFA, the sport’s governing body, released a statement condemning racism. “First of all, FIFA strongly rejects any form of racism and violence and has a very clear zero-tolerance stance against such behavior in football,” the spokesman said. “FIFA will investigate the incident at yesterday’s match in Paris.”
As long as they continue “blah, blah, blah” and do not punish, it will continue like this, every day and everywhere. No time brother! #racismonão pic.twitter.com/p8GqMPqUKa
– Richarlison Andrade (@richarlison97) September 28, 2022
Brazilian Richarlison racially abused against Tunisia in Paris, France
Piara Powar, executive director of the Fare network against racism, has stated that, unfortunately, justice could be complicated. “This is an intercontinental friendly, between Tunisia, which is with CAF, and Brazil with CONMEBOL, so it is difficult to know who has the responsibility of governing this match and that is one of the questions that we ask FIFA this tomorrow,” Powar said. .
“In general, what we would be doing is submitting information to FIFA to sanction the Tunisian Football Association because that is the way football regulation works,” Powar continued. “I guess the Tunisian FA would say: ‘Well this was in Paris, we don’t know if it was one of our fans, we don’t know where the ticket was bought.'”
“So there are a host of issues that could stand in the way of justice for Richarlison. I hope French authorities can identify the individual via CCTV and then arrests can be made.”
“We have already been in contact with FIFA, they know about it and they are looking into it.”
A recent report in England found that hate crimes were up 99% last season compared to the previous season. 384 cases were reported during the 2021/22 season in England and Wales alone.
PHOTO: IMAGO / Panoramic
