Erdogan blames ‘racist trend’ in France for Champions League incident

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that the racist incident during the Champions League soccer game between Paris St Germain and Istanbul Basaksehir was a fresh expression of racist trends in France.

“This approach is unforgivable. Our determined stance will continue. (…) France has become a country where racist rhetoric, actions are intensified,” Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara.

Basaksehir’s assistant coach Pierre Webo was shown a red card for protesting against a refereeing decision and the Turkish side then alleged that the fourth official Sebastian Coltescu used a racist term towards the Cameroonian.

The players from both teams left the field after about 10 minutes of discussions with Romanian referee Ovidiu Hategan.

The game, which was suspended in the 13th minute, did not resume and UEFA said the rest of the match at the Parc des Princes would be played on Wednesday at 1755 GMT.