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Football

Chennai City FC's Katsumi Yusa faces racial abuse from match referee

The Japanese was also sent off after the game remained paused for 14 minutes.

Chennai City FCs Katsumi Yusa faces racial abuse from match referee
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By

Karan Vinod

Updated: 4 Aug 2021 2:01 PM GMT

In a shocking incident that transpired last night at the Sheikh Kamal International Club Cup match between Chennai City FC (CCFC) and Bashundhara Kings in Chittagong, the match referee targeted racial hurls towards Japanese midfielder Katsumi Yusa. Yusa later raised a complaint about racial abuse directed at him.

CCFC lost the game 2-3 after finishing the game with nine men as it ended their hopes of reaching the semifinals. The incident happened in the 23rd minute when Bashundhara's Emon Mahmud fouled Charles Anandaraj near the box. Katsumi then asked the Sri Lankan referee Lakmal Weerakkody to issue a yellow card to Mahmud for the challenge. That's when the incident happened.

According to CCFC chief operations officer Ingulab Ranganathan, the referee wasn't listening to Katsumi and instead "racially abused" the midfielder. Speaking to TOI from Chittagong, Ingulab told TOI,

"Katsumi simply asked the referee whether the foul was a yellow card offence or not. Weerakkody lost his cool and told him 'Mind your own business, you Chinese. Do you know your origins or where you come from? This isn't China, this is Bangladesh. You don't know or make the rules here'. That's when Katsumi lost it."

Things could have been even worse when Katsumi charged at the referee but a timely intervention by CCFC's Spanish striker Pedro Manzi prevented things from blowing up and probably prevented the Japanese midfielder from causing harm to the referee. Ingulab further added,

"Katsumi also wanted to pull off the match. But we decided against it because it was an international tournament and withdrawing from the game could have meant sanctions for us. But we have lodged a written complaint with the Bangladesh football federation and match Commissioner Mahesh Bista and want justice."

A couple of minutes later, Weerakkody sent off Katsumi and play resumed after 14 minutes. But that wasn't the end of the drama. In added minutes of the first half, CCFC's Mahoor Sharif fouled Bakhtiyar Duyshobekov near the team's technical area. Bashundhara coach Oscar Bruzon appealed for a red card to the referee. CCFC's coach Akbar Nawas was also involved in the altercation and the referee gave marching orders to both the coaches.

CCFC's central defender Roberto Eslava was also sent off after two yellow cards. That didn't hinder CCFC from putting up a solid fight but it was all in vain as they could not avoid defeat.

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