The UEFA Europa League match between Rangers and Slavia Prague on Thursday, March 18, 2021, is still generating controversy even though the European football governing body, UEFA, had confirmed that investigation into some of the controversial aspects of the match had begun.
In the match which ended 2-0 in favor of Slavia Prague, a series of controversies happened which included the brutal injury Rangers’ player, Kemar Roofe inflicted on Ondrej Kolar. Another was the alleged racial comments Ondrej Kudela directed to Rangers player Glen Kamara.
The manager of Rangers, Steven Gerrard confirmed after the game that ended Rangers’ journey in this season’s UEFA Europa League that Glen Kamara suffered a racial attack from Kudela. However, Slavia Prague issued a statement earlier on Friday to insist that their player didn’t racially abuse Rangers player.
The Czech Republic side stressed that it was Rangers that were bad hosts during and after the match and described the conduct of Rangers as “unprecedented malicious play”.
Again, Slavia Prague issued another statement to announce that the club has filed a criminal suit against Rangers to Scottish police through Czech embassy in the United Kingdom.
In the statement, Slavia stressed that Ondrej Kudela was assaulted in Rangers’ Ibrox Stadium tunnel after the Europa League match. The club from Czech Republic described the assault on Kudela as brutal.
According to the statement from the club, Rangers’ coach Steven Gerrard witnessed how Slavia’s player was assaulted by members of Rangers team. The statement also alleged that UEFA delegates and members of Slavia’s staff were also witnesses to the assault.
“The assault was brutal and carried out with the full force to hurt and cause physical harm to our player”, Slavia Prague statement said.
“In the text, the names of people who witnessed the incident are stated, as well as SK Slavia Prague representatives, including UEFA representatives and Rangers FC manager Steven Gerrard.”
As of the time of publishing this report, Scottish police were yet to confirm that Slavia Prague had submitted any criminal suit against the newly crowned Scottish Premiership champions.
Also, as of the time of publishing this report, Rangers were yet to react to the latest press statement from Slavia Prague which means that last has not been heard of the Europa League game especially as related to the alleged assault on Ondrej Kudela.
