Alkass Digital
Qatar Football Association (QFA) President Jassim bin Rashid Al Buenain on Tuesday backed Yusuf Abdurisag Yusuf while condemning “the unwarranted attention” the Al Annabi forward has received.
“Everyone at QFA stands with Yusuf Abdurisag Yusuf and strongly condemns the unwarranted attention he has received in the past 24 hours,” the QFA President said in a statement today, June 20.
“The QFA has consistently promoted multicultural values in its programmes and initiatives, and for decades our national football team has competed around the world without any member, whether playing or non-playing, facing accusations of discriminatory behaviour. Furthermore, several athletic events have been held in Qatar without similar incidents. The QFA remains fully committed to supporting Yusuf at this time,” he added.
New Zealand players refused to take the field in the second half during their friendly match against Qatar in Austria on Monday.
New Zealand football federation later tweeted: “Michael Boxall was racially abused during the first half of the game by a Qatari player. No official action was taken so the team have agreed not to come out for the second half of the match."
While clarifying the allegation, QFA in a separate statement on Tuesday said Yusuf “stressed in fact, he himself was racially abused during the match”.
“With reference to the “A” representative team match between Qatar and New Zealand played on 19 June 2023, the QFA would like to clarify the widespread media allegations as follows. QFA’s player Yusuf Abdurisag confirmed an exchange of words with an opponent – in the heat of the moment – shortly before half-time. Yusuf stressed that no racial or discriminatory language was used or directed towards any player of the New Zealand team. In the contrary, Yusuf stressed that, in fact, he himself was racially abused during the match,” QFA said.
“In any case, the QFA takes the allegations incredibly seriously and stands against racism in all its forms. The experience of racism should never be trivialised and remains a serious problem within the game. As such, the QFA encourages the international football community to do more to tackle racism and discrimination on and off the pitch,” QFA added.
It is first time that a Qatari player has been accused of hurling racist remark at any level in international or club football.
Asian champions Qatar were based in Austria for a training camp ahead of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, which will be hosted by the United States and Canada from June 25. The team, coached by Carlos Queiroz, left for the US from Vienna on Tuesday.