Porto striker Moussa Marega substituted himself off the pitch following racist chants and abuse in Portugal. The incident occurred during Porto’s game against Vitoria Guimaraes on Sunday and the striker was subjected to racist chants and abuse by Vitoria supporters.
The Mali international player helped his side to win 2-1 by scoring a goal and as the striker celebrated the goal fans allegedly blurred out racially slurs. Fans also threw objects and stadium seats at Marega which led to him being furious. The 28-year-old didn’t take lightly to the racial slurs or chairs being thrown at him and could be seen leaving the pitch.
As he tried to battle past teammates to leave the pitch, both teams players tried to get him to stay on and play was halted in the 68th minute for about 3 minutes. Eventually, he made his way off the pitch and his coaches ushered him down the tunnel.
In an Instagram post after the game, Marega’s said: “To those idiots that go to the stadium to racially abuse people, go fuck yourselves. I’m also grateful to the referee for not defending me & for giving me a yellow card for defending my skin color. I hope I never see you on a pitch again. You’re a disgrace.”
The head coach at Porto, Sergio Conceicao, commented after the game saying, ”We are a family regardless of nationality, skin color, hair color. We are human, we deserve respect. What happened here is unfortunate. We are completely indignant about what happened. I know the passion that exists for Vitoria and I think most of the fans do not see themselves in the same attitude of some people who have insulted Moussa since the warm-up.”
A club statement released showed their full support for Marega’s actions and the club called for a penalty against Vitoria. Vitoria side also condemned the action and said a thorough investigation would be carried out and those involved would be punished.
The Portuguese league also made a statement saying, ”Liga Portugal does not agree, it never will, with acts of racism, xenophobia, intolerance and any other that jeopardise the dignity of footballers, agents, or just, of the human being. These acts shame football and human dignity. Liga Portugal will do everything so that this, and all episodes of racism, do not go unpunished.”
Porto players also received backlash from fans on social media. Fans believe Instead of stopping Marega from substituting himself, FC Porto players should have left the pitch with him.
#NoToRacism
See the video below and more pics below
Porto's Moussa Marega tried to sub himself off earlier as he couldn't deal with the racist chants from Guimaraes fans. Awful 😡
Instead of going off with him, his teammates tried their best to get him to stay.
The teammates should have walked off as well.pic.twitter.com/413UwloUbx— BenchWarmers (@BeWarmers) February 16, 2020
