Slavia Prague’s President Jaroslav Tvrdik has admitted that he is ashamed of his own supporters after they displayed a racist banner directed at theRangers midfielder Glen Kamara the day after the controversial Europa League match at Ibrox on Thursday evening.
And Tvrdik also insisted that theRangers substitute Kemar Roofe could have killed this goalkeeper Ondrej Kolar in one of the worse ‘tackles’ ever seen in football. The Slavia keeper was left serious injured with a fractured skull.
The Slavia boss took to social media to immediately condemn the racists responsible for the disgraceful banner. “I am terribly ashamed of the content of the photo published by some radical fans. It’s absolutely disgusting, pathetic and racist. NO TO RACISM!”
The official statement released from Slavia said: “The club is absolutely disgusted by the racist photograph published online by a group of alleged “fans” on Friday night. We condemn this act as totally unacceptable, and we distance ourselves from it. It is an unprecedented backstabbing of the club and its ideals.
“SK Slavia Praha files criminal complaint against unknown individuals involved in the preparation and publishing of the picture. The club will launch its own inquiry into this matter in order to identify those individuals.
“Racism has no room in our club, and we have been fighting against it for a long time. Every player is considered a member of our family, no matter what the colour of their skin, their nationality, cultural background, or religion is. We maximally support our players in their current fight against racism and against the abovementioned picture on the social media.
“Slavia has great fans who many times managed to amaze the football world in a positive way. We ask them to join us, and publicly sign up to zero tolerance of racism and condemn such behaviour. Let’s present the real, cultivated, and noble Slavia we are all proud of.”
Slavia distance themselves from authors of the racist photograph. The club files criminal complaint against unknown individuals involved in the preparation and publishing of the picture and we will launch our own inquiry into this matter.
CLUB STATEMENT➡️ https://t.co/e4lQgX6uON pic.twitter.com/udk1qMBmV8
— SK Slavia Prague EN (@slavia_eng) March 20, 2021
What was not addressed in this Slavia Statement, indeed it is not admitted by Slavia is that one of their players – defender Ondrej Kudela – whispered what Kamara claims was a racist comment into theRangers player’s ear on Thursday night. Judging by his immediate reaction and the way things progressed at Ibrox on Thursday after that it is hard to believe the Prague player’s version of what was said and that matter will now be dealt with by UEFA who will be extremely busy over the next few weeks looking at what happened during and after that controversial match which Sparta won 2-0 to progress to the Europa League quarter finals and theRangers ended up with just nine players on the park.
The Ibrox club’s decision to allegedly deny Sparta access to the changing rooms for a long period after the final whistle plus the allegation that Kudela was assaulted with both Steven Gerrard and the UEFA delegate witnessing this violence will also by looked at by UEFA.
Yesterday Celtic’s Interim manager John Kennedy had his say, condemning racism personally and on behalf of Celtic Football Club.
“There’s a huge way to go (in eradicating racism in football). It’s totally unacceptable. Something really needs to be done about it. I don’t know the details of last night, there are obviously allegations there, but it happens far too often,” Kennedy said at the club’s pre-match Mainstream Media conference, as reported by the official Celtic website.
“There’s no place for it in society at all, never mind football, and it’s something which we need to get rid of as quickly as we can and it’s how you deal with that. For these people, to attack players, or anyone, it’s just totally unacceptable and needs to be dealt with very seriously.
“Unity across all groups needs to be shown, one hundred per cent, all governing bodies, all clubs, have to come together on this and support it – that’s the only way it works, when everybody gets behind it. There’s no point in small groups, some people involved, some people not, everybody has to get on the same page with this, take it seriously, and deal with it.”
Celtic also tweeted the club’s anti-racism message: “Celtic has been a club open to all since 1888. We stand firmly against all forms of racism and bigotry. #OneClubSince1888.”
#CelticFC has been a club open to all since 1888.
We stand firmly against all forms of racism and bigotry.#OneClubSince1888 pic.twitter.com/G13Y1siuOj
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) March 19, 2021
More to follow on the sleekit act of ear whispering and the importance of following the Sparta President’s example in condemning racist behaviour among a club’s support…
