What word did you say?
Referee describes demolition after scandal at Qatar game
06/22/2023 11:52 am
New Zealand’s national soccer team refuses to play Qatar in the second half, the friendly game is abandoned. Referee Manuel Schüttengruber gave ntv.de an insight into how he experienced the alleged racist statements on the field and in the dressing room.
It was supposed to be a friendly game, but ended after 45 minutes with a premature abandonment, followed by mutual reproaches: the meeting between the national soccer teams of Qatar and New Zealand in Austria. The “All Whites” stayed in the dressing room after half-time and refused to continue. Defender Michael Boxall is said to have been racially insulted by a Qatari footballer shortly before the break, the New Zealand FA said. The Qatar Football Association (QFA) firmly rejected this account and instead reported that the player Yusuf Abdurisag had been racially insulted.
At the request of ntv.de, referee Manuel Schüttengruber now describes his view of the incident. “The captain [Neuseelands, Anmerkung der Redaktion] informed me for the first time about the words that had been said when he left during the half-time break,” says the 39-year-old, who, however, did not consciously notice the scene in question. “I was just about to put up the wall after a foul game,” he reports, when his assistants alerted him via headset “that there was a confrontation between the players.” He then mediated without knowing what triggered it.
However, the acoustic perception as a referee is clouded anyway, as Schüttengruber explains: “Through the headset, we don’t really hear any other noises in one ear through the in-ear”, apart from those that “come from our colleagues via radio”. Even during the resolution of the confrontation, he did not realize that a racist statement could have been made. “I only got this information from the captain during the half-time break,” says Schüttengruber, because “unfortunately he never told me what exactly happened on the pitch.”
Video footage of the scene in question appears to show a New Zealand player saying “He can’t say that, Ref” to the referee. Schüttengruber says he cannot remember this statement, but believes it is possible that he did not hear it. Only on the way to half-time did he find out specifically what was supposed to have happened. There was talk of the “N-word”, says Schüttengruber, but the New Zealand captain didn’t say the word. He himself did not immediately know what the word was and shortly afterwards the team manager explained that it was a racist and discriminatory insult. That belongs “absolutely not in society,” said Schüttengruber to ntv.de.
“It’s very difficult to find out anything”
Shortly thereafter, the New Zealand team informed him “not to play the second half anymore,” said the Austrian referee. Schüttengruber then stopped the game when the score was 1-0 for the selection from Oceania and subsequently made “my report to the responsible authorities”. They are now required to make a decision. The national associations of New Zealand and Qatar also called on the world association FIFA to act. “But that’s probably very difficult, because now something can be found out,” he told ORF that a complete explanation is hardly to be expected.
The Qatari association followed up with two messages on Twitter the day after the scandal. Association President Jassim bin Rashid Al Buenain is quoted as saying that he firmly denied the allegations: “For decades, our national team has competed around the world without a member ever being accused of discriminatory behavior on or off the pitch.” Yusuf Abdurisag also confirmed that there was a verbal argument “at a heated moment” – but without any racist or discriminatory statements.
Instead of this appeal the QFAthat “racism is a serious problem in football” and “must never be downplayed”. And: Abdurisag made it clear that “he was actually racially insulted during the match”. However, nothing is known of Qatari protests on the pitch, during half-time or shortly after the game was abandoned. There was also no mention of this in the first reactions to the New Zealand allegations. Qatar’s allegations were only made public after a significant delay.
New Zealand’s association president Andrew Pragnell had backed his team immediately after the game was abandoned and denounced the fact that, despite “several witnesses”, there had been no reaction to the alleged statements by a Qatari international on the field. “No official action has been taken,” said Pragnell, why the team felt compelled to act: “We never want a game to be abandoned, but there are issues that go beyond football and it’s important to take action to use for it.”