Dion Dublin tells UEFA to ‘find a backbone’ after judgement over Kudela & Kamara
BBC pundit Dion Dublin has told UEFA to ‘find a backbone’ after they decided to ban Ondrej Kudela for just 10 matches after a racial incident against Rangers in the Europa League.
Glen Kamara, the player he was found guilty of racially abusing, was handed a three-game ban for an altercation with Kudela in the tunnel after the game.
UEFA announced the suspensions on Wednesday, and Kudela responded by apologising to Kamara for confronting him in a rare moment of red mist but denied making any racial slurs.
Speaking about the fact that he was handed only a ten-game suspension, former Premier League footballer Dion Dublin said on BBC’s Football Daily, “Pathetic is a very good word and I would use it myself.
“How can this still be happening? It used to happen in my 22-year career as well.
“What they need to, the Champions League [UEFA], is to find a backbone and find somebody that wants to make a difference and make them sit at the top of the tree.”
Taking the knee won’t solve a thing
Dion Dublin is absolutely spot on when he talks about the severity of the ban. A ten-game ban may not even stand given that an appeal is in the offing.
Gestures like taking the knee, wearing t-shirts to show how racism is not tolerated, are not going to solve anything when nobody is willing to tackle the root cause.
To send a message to any future perpetrators, all of football’s governing bodies much impose harsher penalties – including lifetime bans in case of repeat offenders or extreme circumstances.
As he rightly pointed out, this isn’t a modern-day problem but has been prevalent in the game for decades.
If UEFA are not quick to tackle this situation right away, players could be forced to take matters into their own hands which often results in violent conduct on and off the pitch, and that’s not what anybody wants.
But as long as racism is tainting this sport, football cannot be called the beautiful game.
In other Rangers news, ‘Delete that’ – Tam McManus hits back at Celtic fan over Twitter post on Kudela: ‘Embarrassing’