Chennai City FC assistant coach Satyasagara, on behalf of the club, said it was a racist remark by the referee towards Yusa Katsumi that paved way for the outburst from the Japanese midfielder during their game against Bashundhara Kings Thursday.
“On behalf of the management of the club, it’s really a setback (considering the incident was instigated by) the officials who officiated the game. The federation must investigate the decision he made. The referee made a racist remark calling him (Katsumi) ‘China.’ He went down emotionally and cried at the dressing room,” said Satyasagara in the post-match press conference.
Bashundhara clinched their first win of the Club Cup after beating nine-man Chennai City 3-2 in an eventful tie where four red cards were dished on and off the pitch, including the coaches of the two teams, at MA Aziz Stadium in the port city Thursdayhttps://t.co/jIaVJXgAqT#BFF
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“Katsumi is a Japanese player and you know the Japanese are very disciplined. He (referee) is emotional and should not have done that. Even he made some remarks to our local players. So that’s why he (Katsumi) wanted to pull out, but because the players and the foreign players wanted to play the game to satisfy the organization, we decided to play on,” he added.
The Singaporean coach also slammed the Sri Lankan referee Lakmal Weerakkody for giving red card to his compatriot head coach Akbar Nawas.
“The opponent coach (Oscar Bruzon) ran out to the pitch to our technical area but he (referee) decided to give red cards to both coaches, which is not fair,” Satyasagara added.
After the Chennai players complained to the match commissioner, he forwarded it to the disciplinary committee of the tournament.
