Spanish La Liga side Valencia walked off the pitch during their league encounter against Cadiz on Sunday evening when defender Mouctar Diakhaby was allegedly racially abused.
The match was locked at 1-1 when the incident happened in the 30th minute.
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Diakhaby and Cadiz defender Juan Cala were involved in an argument and the French defender went into a fit of rage.
Referee David Jimenez booked an infuriated Diakhaby who reported the racial comment and the entire Valencia team walked off into the dressing room as the referee failed to take necessary action, stopping the game momentarily.
Diakhaby however prevailed on his teammates to return after a 25-minute stoppage following a team meeting, the club revealed on its Twitter page. “𝗡𝗢 𝗧𝗢 𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗜𝗦𝗠. The team have held a meeting and decided to continue the game, in order to fight for the honour of the club, but denounce racism of any kind.
“We offer our complete backing to Diakhaby. The player, who had received a racial insult, requested that his teammates return to the pitch. We support you Mouctar. 𝗡𝗢 𝗧𝗢 𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗜𝗦𝗠,” the club added.
The match resumed but the 24 years old defender failed to return to the pitch but chose to watch on the sidelines.
Cadiz went on to win the game via Marcos Mauro’s 88th minute winner.
It is the second time in four months that a team would walk off the pitch in protest against racism, the first of such was during PSG and Istanbul Basaksehir’s Uefa champions league encounter in December.
Both sides walked off following alleged racial slur by a member of the refereeing team towards one of the Turkish club’s coaching staff.
The match was abandoned and only resumed the following day.
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