PARIS — Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League Group H clash with Istanbul Basaksehir on Tuesday was put on hold and won’t be resumed until Wednesday after an assistant manager was allegedly racially abused by an official. The match will resume at 12:55 p.m. ET on CBS All Access with Dutch referee Danny Makkelie brought on to officiate.
The incident took place just 14 minutes into the tie before both sets of players walked off of the Parc des Princes pitch by the 23rd minute following an incident involving the refereeing team and the Turkish side’s staff.
Basaksehir’s Cameroonian assistant Pierre Webo, 38, was shown a red card and an incident then took place between the former Cameroon international and Romanian fourth official Constantin Coltescu that the Turkish Süper Lig outfit have deemed racist.
After lengthy discussions, the Basaksehir players walked off and the PSG players followed suit in an unprecedented show of solidarity at the Champions League level. UEFA said in a statement it will be “conducting a thorough investigation on the matter” and that “racism, and discrimination in all its forms, has no place within football.”
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Basaksehir striker Demba Ba was seen angrily confronting the official in question in defense of Webo before the players returned to the changing rooms in the French capital.
“You never say ‘this white guy,’ you say ‘this guy,'” Ba said on the pitch in protest when referring to a white person. “Why when you mention a black guy, you have to say ‘this black guy’?”
At one point on Tuesday, PSG’s players were seen waiting in the tunnel in case they were sent back on. However, over an hour later, the game was still not back on and PSG staff came out to collect items from the pitchside area.
Kylian Mbappe and Presnel Kimpembe were both vocal in their refusal to continue play with Coltescu as the fourth official and the latter announced that the PSG players would be leaving the field. Mbappe, Neymar and others took to Twitter after the walk-out:
UEFA released the following statement to set plans for Wednesday’s restart:
Following an incident at tonight’s UEFA Champions League match between Paris Saint-Germain FC and Istanbul Basaksehir FK, UEFA has – after discussion with both clubs – decided on an exceptional basis to have the remaining minutes of the match played tomorrow with a new team of match officials. The kick-off has been set at 18:55 CET.
UEFA, according to Basaksehir, have also frozen Webo’s red card, allowing the assistant to take his place on the bench for the conclusion of the game.
RB Leipzig jumped PSG atop Group H with a 3-2 home win over Manchester United, knocking the Red Devils to the Europa League round of 32. PSG would need a win on Wednesday to move secure first place in the group and placed in a seeded pot for Monday’s UCL round of 16 draw.
CBS Sports will continue to update this developing story as necessary.
