A Congolese player at FC Brussels who walked out after being racially abused by the Belgian club’s president Johan Vermeersch has agreed to return.
Zola Matumona quit the club after he and his fellow players were lambasted by Vermeersch for a string of poor performances, with the club president telling him to think about things other than ”trees and bananas”.
But after lengthy talks with Vermeersch on Tuesday, Matumona agreed to return, accepting his boss’s excuses and dropping his planned legal action, the club announced.
The club’s kit sponsor, South Korean car manufacturer Kia, terminated its contract over the row saying: ”We don’t want to be associated in any way with racism.”
While welcoming Tuesday’s reconciliation Kia said it was standing by its original decision ”because of the damage suffered by its mark’s image”.
After nine defeats from 12 games FC Brussels are lying one off the foot of the Belgian first division. – Sapa-AFP