Soccer: New Zealand Quits Qatar Match After Alleged Racism

Facts

• On Monday, the New Zealand national men's football team walked away from its friendly [i.e. non-competitive] match with Qatar alleging on-field racial abuse and a failure to act by Qatari officials. Following halftime, with a 1-0 lead, New Zealand refused to return to the pitch.¹
• The incident took place when Qatar's Yousuf Abdurisag allegedly made a racist remark to New Zealand's Michael Boxall, who is of Samoan heritage; in response, Qatar was awarded a free kick. Following a scuffle between the clubs in the 40th minute, New Zealand captain Joe Bell appealed to referee Michael Schuttengruber, who took no action.²
• The New Zealand walkout was the second match abandonment to occur in Austria on Monday. Ireland's under-21 club walked away from a friendly match with Kuwait after a racial slur was used toward an Irish player.³
• New Zealand's Football CEO Andrew Pragnell said, "We fully support the action of our players, who agreed collectively to this course of action." Pragnell went on to say, "We never want to see a match abandoned but some issues are bigger than football and it is important to make a stand."⁴
• In response to the allegations, Qatar's coach, Carlos Queiroz, supported the actions of his players and said: "Apparently two players exchanged words, and we don't know who was first, who was second, it's only between them...The New Zealand players decided to support their teammate and we also decided to support our player."⁵
• Following the walkout, there was no comment made available from the Qatar FA [Football Association], FIFA, or the Asian Football Confederation.³

Sources: ¹Guardian, ²Al Jazeera, ³Reuters, ⁴Washington Post, and ⁵ESPN.

Narratives

• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Associated Press. There is a deep history of racism in football. While predominantly occurring in Europe, racial slurs and racist chants have grown around the world, exacerbated by social media and spectators' belief in freedom of speech. The world is watching racism in real-time while federations ignore the egregious abuse and talk around it. When they don't take a firm stance, they implicitly signal that the hateful treatment of players is acceptable.
• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Africa News. FIFA recognizes the deeply troubling racist trend that's occurring in football. It has taken a strong stance against the acts as they have no place in football. At all levels of play, when these incidents occur, the match must be stopped and the actions of the players and spectators addressed. In an effort to advance the Association's stance on this matter, an anti-racism task force has been developed to include Vinicius Junior to assess and determine the best path forward for football.