The Republic of Ireland U21’s fixture against Kuwait U22s on Monday was abandoned after an alleged racist mark was made by a Kuwait player towards an Ireland substitute.
The match in Austria was cancelled in the second half with Ireland leading 3-0 after goals from Ollie O’Neill, Conor Carty, and debutant Aidomo Emakhu.
Ireland U21 manager Jim Crawford took his players off the field as soon as the alleged abuse took place and the FAI confirmed it will be reporting the incident to FIFA and UEFA to investigate.
“The FAI regrets to announce that [Monday’s] U21 international against Kuwait has been abandoned after a racist remark was made by a Kuwaiti player towards one of our substitutes,” the Football Association of Ireland posted on Twitter.
“The FAI does not tolerate any racism towards any of our players or staff and will be reporting this serious matter to FIFA and UEFA.”
In a statement posted later on Twitter, the Kuwait FA revealed Kuwait Olympic football team director Jarrah Al-Ateeqi said the match “was not completed due to roughness and excessive tension between the players”.
The Kuwait FA said: “Al-Ateeqi explained that the match stopped at the 70th minute to protect the players from injuries, especially since the main goal of the match is friction and standing on the readiness of the players before the conclusion of their camp and return to the country.”
The governing body added Al-Ateeqi “praised the discipline and commitment of the players throughout the camp”.
Monday’s game came at the end of a training camp in Austria designed to prepare Ireland for September’s European Championship qualifiers against Turkey and San Marino, and four days after they fought back to draw 2-2 with Ukraine U21s.
In March, Crawford hit out at the “uneducated” trolls who sent “unacceptable” online abuse to members of the country’s U15s squad.
The FAI condemned those attacks as “vile and horrific” and Crawford said at the time: “I just want to get it out there that there’s certainly no place for racism in sport, in society.
“It comes from a minority, it comes from uneducated people and it comes from social media platforms where people can disguise their names, their identity. The unfortunate thing is that they have a platform.
“It just makes you angry. I just think it’s time that we all just work together on this and stamp it out because it’s unacceptable.”
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Meanwhile, in Ritzing, also in Austria, New Zealand refused to take the field for the second half after no action was taken over alleged racism in their friendly against Qatar.
NZ Football tweeted: “Michael Boxall was racially abused during the first half of the game by a Qatari player.
“No official action was taken so the team have agreed not to come out for the second half of the match.”
The incident occurred shortly before half-time, leading to a reported melee on the pitch before the teams went in for the interval with the All Whites leading 1-0.
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