Polish side Wisla Krakow and their Serbian defender Nikola Mijailovic face investigation by Uefa after Blackburn striker Benni McCarthy lodged a formal complaint about racial abuse.
The black South African striker squared up to Mijailovic at the end of Blackburn’s 2-1 Uefa Cup win in Krakow on Thursday night after being allegedly provoked by the defender.
Blackburn said on Friday that McCarthy and another player who had overheard the abuse made a statement on the incident, which has been forwarded to Uefa and the English Football Association.
Uefa spokesperson William Gaillard said earlier in the day that the governing body of European football took the allegations extremely seriously, but admitted it could be difficult to secure enough evidence to justify action against the player or his club.
Gaillard said: ”Benni McCarthy has been in the game for a long time now, playing at the top level, so we have no reason to doubt his word. The problem will be finding the hard evidence to pass sanctions.
”There is always the problem of finding hard evidence, but at the same time the referee might have heard something. It should be in the referee’s report and I heard that Blackburn people mentioned it to the [Uefa] delegate.”
Rovers boss Mark Hughes said after the match that Blackburn would seek to ensure some action was taken.
”Benni was upset at the end because of these comments that were made to him during the game,” Hughes said. ”We will speak to Uefa and make it clear to them who we think was involved.”
The McCarthy incident came just days after England under-21 internationals Anton Ferdinand and Micah Richards were allegedly called monkeys during a match in Germany, claims Uefa will examine on November 9.
Gaillard added: ”In many ways we are dismayed that this type of matter is coming to us on nearly a weekly basis; on the other hand we would like to underline the fact that it’s very courageous on Benni McCarthy’s part to denounce the alleged abuse.
”We’ve had problems in the past in getting players to bear witness on such issues and we think it is progress when players begin to react and complain.”
Blackburn came from a goal down to win Thursday’s match 2-1. The English side had trailed at the break when a Roberto Cantoro drive took a big deflection off Turkey midfielder Tugay to leave goalkeeper Brad Friedel stranded.
Rovers equalised 11 minutes after the interval when former Welsh international Robbie Savage headed in a cross from David Bentley, who followed that up by finishing off a rebound in the last minute for the winner. — Sapa-AFP