Exclusive: Alex McLeish reacts to alledged racist incident in Rangers v Slavia Prague
We’re delighted to welcome former Rangers manager Alex McLeish as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Ibrox…
Alex McLeish was left astonished by the behaviour of Slavia Prague’s Ondřej Kúdela after he was alleged to have racially abused Glen Kamara.
The Czech club have now published two statements since the match, the first denied the accusations but McLeish thinks the reaction of the Gers players is very telling.
He expressed his disgust by the events, if true, and hinted that it undermines all the work that has been done to root racism out of the game.
Speaking exclusively to Ibrox News, McLeish said, “When you see the reaction with Glen Kamara then you assume something naughty has been said by the Czech Republic player and he cupped his hands to hide it from the camera.
“So you can only assume, it’s hard for us to come out in public and say these things as we don’t know for sure.
“That’s what it seemed to be and you see the reaction of his teammates as well that they heard it too.
“We’ve been working so hard to stamp it out and to still have elements of that – if that’s what he said – that’s just not on.
“We’ve seen recently if there was a racist slur we’ve seen teams walk off but normally it’s from the crowd and players have got together and marched off.
“For all that has gone on in the last year or so what is possessing these guys? What’s possessing them?”
Reaction tells the story.
McLeish is right to point to the reactions of the players as it reveals a lot.
As soon as Kamara heard what was said he went straight to the referee to state Kúdela had just racially abused him.
Bongani Zungu, who was in earshot, also repeated the word used by the Slavia Prague man and he too was outraged.
As for Kamara himself, he is usually so mild-mannered and never has aggressive outbursts on the pitch. Yet on this occasion he really went after Kúdela.
According to Slavia Prague Kamara also assaulted his abuser after the match.
If true, it just shows how much Kamara was affected by what was said, and such a reaction would not have been provoked by Slavia’s version of events.
In other Rangers news, McCleish was boosted by the return of one Gers star ahead of Thursday’s match.