The Dutch referee Danny Makkelie, who knelt next to the players of the Paris Saint-Germain and the Basaksehir from Istanbul in the previous of a match of Champions League To protest against racism, he said he did it “to send a signal.”
During a meeting held on the same Wednesday to prepare for the match, they informed him of the intention of the players to kneel when the anthem of the competition sounded.
“I said that of course we would participate, as referees we are also against discrimination and racism,” Makkelie said on a program on the Dutch network NPO Radio 1.
“I did not hesitate to do it as a show of sportsmanship and respect,” commented the referee, for whom the gesture of the players was not a surprise because “it has already happened frequently in other Champions League matches.”
The referee explained that he received a call from UEFA just after the suspension of the match last Tuesday to, along with his collaborators, replace the Romanian referee trio that was the subject of controversy in Paris.
One of Makkelie's regular assistant referees did not have time to take a coronavirus test, the Dutchman explained, so UEFA appointed Polish referee Marcin Boniek as one of the linemen in his place, while the fourth official was appointed. also Polish Bartosz Frankowski.
The origin of the controversy took place last Tuesday in the 22nd minute of the match, when the players of PSG and Istanbul Basaksehir left the pitch after the fourth official of the match, the Romanian Sebastian Coltescu, supposedly referred to as ” that black man “to identify the former Cameroonian international Pierre Achille Webo, whom referee Ovidiu Hategan was going to expel for his repeated protests.
Webo, a former player for Nacional de Montevideo, Osasuna, Mallorca and Leganés, ostensibly complained about the use of the word “black”, but the referee ignored him and showed him the red card.
The Turkish bench was outraged, and led by Demba Ba from France, the protests escalated despite Coltescu saying it was not a racist expression. PSG players also got involved and in the end both teams withdrew from the Parque de los Príncipes stadium field.
The match was postponed the next day and just before the restart, the players and the refereeing trio knelt around the center circle as the Champions League anthem sounded. At the restart, PSG thrashed Istanbul's Basaksehir 5-1, giving the French team first place in group H.