UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS, QUOTES
By Muhammed Enes Calli and Can Erozden
ANKARA (AA) - Turkish football club Medipol Basaksehir have demanded from UEFA a life-long ban on referees who passed racist remarks on the team's assistant manager Pierre Webo.
The club's chairman, Goksel Gumusdag, said in a news conference on Thursday that Dec. 8, 2020 will be remembered in the history of sports as the players refused to play the Champions League match to protest against the racist remark.
The chairman was talking to reporters at the Istanbul Airport after the team returned from Paris.
Webo, a Cameroonian national, complained during Tuesday's game that fourth official Sebastian Coltescu had used a racial slur to identify him.
In its aftermath, Basaksehir and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) players walked off the pitch as a protest against the racist remark.
Webo was shown a red card in the match before the break as he argued with the game official.
The game was then postponed to Wednesday by UEFA and Webo's red card was rescinded.
UEFA assigned a new team of match officials so that the game could resume.
PSG hammered Basaksehir 5-1 in the rescheduled Group H game.
Following the victory, the French club won the group to qualify for the last 16 phase in the Champions League.
The losing team, Basaksehir have already been eliminated from the European campaign.
- Basaksehir's manager thanks PSG for support
Gumusdag also said he has written a letter to UEFA, which will be sent on Friday, demanding a life-long ban for PSG game referees.
Basaksehir's manager Okan Buruk said he wishes this game will be a turning point especially for the football family and thanked PSG for their support.
Buruk said that PSG players Neymar, Mbappe and Marquinhos had told him: “We will not play as long as this referee continues to stay here.”
“We hope that the other players and all the people in the world will continue this fight [against racism] as Basaksehir did. Our club's stance against racism was remarkable,” he added.
He said PSG players and UEFA also supported their protest.
Webo thanked everybody including his team-mates, chairman, manager and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for their support against racism.
He said that the referee's behavior was beyond the limits.