FAI Reports “Racist Incident” to UEFA

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has reported a “racist incident” to UEFA following the Republic of Ireland’s European U-17 Championship qualifying match against Poland last Saturday, 22 March.

On Monday, 24 March, the FAI confirmed in a statement that the incident – whereby a racist comment was directed at an Irish player – took place during the second half of the game.

“The comment was reported to the match officials at the time, and the players immediately made Republic of Ireland U-17 head coach, Colin O’Brien, aware of the incident,” the statement reads.

“Colin then reported the remark to the match officials two more times during the match. Following the conclusion of the game, FAI officials made a further report to the UEFA delegate, and the delegate has since confirmed the incident will be submitted in the final report to UEFA.”

After the match – which Ireland won 2-0 – O’Brien condemned the incident and voiced his support for the victimised player, who remains unidentified at this time.

“Racism has no place in the game at any level and no one should be subjected to any form of abuse. It has no place in society, and as a staff and a team, we’ve offered our full support to our player.”

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