An “under 14” racism that recorded last night in Prague during the match between Sparta and Glasgow Rangers. The target of howls and insults was the guest midfielder Glen Kamara, a Finnish from Sierra Leone.
The vulgar offenses came from the mouths of about 10 thousand children, all under the age of 14, who crowded the stands following the disqualification of the adult public inflicted by UEFA against Sparta Prague: the fans of the team in August had in fact become protagonists of a similar episode during the Champions League preliminary match against Monaco, mimicking the monkey of comparisons of Aurelien Tchouameni, striker of the Principality club.
Uefa, which has always been strongly committed to fighting racism, opted for a hard punch, closing the Sparta Prague stadium. Then the derogation, with the permission granted to the club to let children in, who were supposed to represent purity and convey the idea of football close to families, a goal that has been pursued for years by football institutions with mixed results. And the episode is repeated, in identical ways, despite the absence of wrinkles in the stands.
The numerous criticisms of the incident did not go down to Sparta Prague, which in a note on its website described it as “unacceptable and ridiculous to insult children on the internet and in the media”. “Our club – continues the statement – proudly defends our players, the future and the pride of this team.”
As if that were not enough, in March Glen Kamara himself had been the target of racist insults during a match with Sparta Prague: on that occasion the protagonist of the short episode was even a Sparta player, the Czech defender Ondrej Kudela, who later he was disqualified for 10 days by Uefa in European competitions.