The Senegalese goalkeeper of Rayo Majadahonda (Spanish third division), Cheikh Sarr, was suspended two matches on Wednesday after his red card received during an altercation with an opposing supporter who uttered racist insults.
The 23-year-old was sent off last weekend during the third division match against Sestao for jumping into the opposition stand and arguing sharply with an opposition supporter who insulted him several times. Indignant, his teammates did not want to finish the match and returned to the locker room to support their goalkeeper, denouncing “unacceptable racist insults” and “an absolute shame”.
Defeat on green carpet
The Spanish Football Federation recognized in its decision that Cheikh Sarr had been “seriously offended”, but considered that he should not have reacted in this way and “used the legal remedies in force”. She also specifies that she noted that the racist chants from some of the Sestao supporters had started earlier in the game and that the player should have reported them at that time.
The Sestao team was sanctioned with two meetings behind closed doors and a fine of 6,000 euros, but won the match 3-0 on the green carpet, the Rayo Majadahonda players not having finished the match.
“Something I couldn’t stand”
This suspension comes as the Spanish press called on the authorities not to sanction Cheikh Sarr if Spain “really wanted to put an end to racism” in its stadiums. “The victim cannot be punished” headlined the sports daily Marca Wednesday, awaiting the RFEF’s decision.
For his part, the Senegalese player declared during a press conference on Tuesday that what he had suffered “was something horrible, something that I could not bear, very sad”. Before adding that “if this happens to me again, I will not react the way I did and I will know how to behave”. “My daughter deserves a better world. I am fighting and I will fight for her,” he wrote in a post on Instagram published before the announcement of his suspension.