Ian Wright exasperated by UEFA ban on Rangers ace Kamara
Ian Wright has been left exasperated after UEFA banned Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara for three games for assaulting Slavia Prague’s Ondrej Kudela. Kudeal was banned for 10 games.
Kamara initially received a five-match ban for his altercation with his racist abuser, but it was reduced after an appeal, according to his lawyer Aamer Anwar.
Kudela has been given a 10-match ban, the maximum punishment for his actions, but Wright feels it’s yet another missed opportunity by UEFA.
He shared his response on Twitter, “I’m guilty of this kind of thinking as well. So many times you think to yourself ‘this is a chance for them to send a message’ or ‘this is a chance for them to show how seriously they take it.
“Only to be disappointed time and time again.”
Wright is understandably bemused at UEFA’s decision-making, as Kieran Trippier received a bigger punishment than Kudela for breaching betting rules.
UEFA farce
This is a big opportunity missed by UEFA and they have shown they do not understand the problem of racism in football once again.
Kudela has rightly been punished but in sanctioning Kamara they have shown a total disregard for his emotions and feelings after receiving disgusting racist abuse.
It is only natural that he would have reacted in the manner that he did.
Instead, UEFA should have stated they understand Kamara’s response and sympathised with him. A suspended sentence would show that there were huge mitigating factors at play.
As well as Kudela, Slavia Prague should have received some kind of sanction or at least condemnation – the club never once showed honesty and openness in this case and were instead apologists for Kudela’s crime.
That is simply unacceptable and UEFA’s failure to send that message is frankly appalling.
They have got away from the incident completely scott-free.
In other Rangers news, Gary Lineker has responded to UEFA’s decision too.