Chris Sutton: FIFA must throw book at Kudela and ban him if guilty
It was a terrible night all-round for Rangers at Ibrox, as they crashed out of the Europa League.
But that was only the half of it.
Rangers had two players sent off before a major flashpoint involving Glen Kamara and Ondrej Kudela.
Kudela whispered something into Kamara’s ear and has since been accused of racist abuse.
Steven Gerrard was emotional after the game and confirmed that Kamara had been racially abused.
He said the game had been soured and that Kamara was in the “worst possible way”. He said he’d never seen his player like this.
Talking on Scottish Football Extra on BT Sport on Friday evening (6.30pm), Ally McCoist and Chris Sutton discussed what are still at the moment allegations.
“It was shocking what we witnessed last night,” McCoist said.
“To go into someone’s ear and cover your mouth and whisper, you certainly don’t want anyone to read your lips.
“I don’t know what he said but judging by Kamara’s reaction… he was far from happy.
“How difficult it will be to prove what was said I don’t know. His mouth was covered up and no cameras picked it up.”
Chris Sutton said, “These are only allegations but Kamara has always been a player who has been controlled in games.
“For him to react like that, something awful must have been said. UEFA’s track record of dealing with racism has been pretty awful.
“This needs to be investigated thoroughly. If he is found guilty then UEFA should throw the book at him and ban him.”
Awful, awful night
After all the excitement and all the heroics, it was a tragedy that our Europa exploits ended like this.
It might be hard to prove but Kamara and Gerrard have come out and explicitly said what happened.
Rangers journalist Jordan Campbell has written a long account of what he understands to have happened, and if true it is totally shocking.
UEFA don’t have a good record on dealing with racism but if this is unpicked and what we think has happened, has happened, then Kudela needs more than just a standard ban.
We don’t think he should play again and Sutton saying he thinks the book should be thrown at him is bang on.
Should Rangers have walked off the pitch? There are two sides to this but there’s a very big case for it.
Racist abuse from fans is one thing. Racist abuse from a player – and utterly shocking racist abuse if he’s said what Campbell thinks he said – is completely another.
In other Rangers news, Stuart McCall noticed Gerrard taking significant action after the final whistle blew against Slavia Prague.