LONDON (AP) An FA Cup qualifier between Haringey Borough and Yeovil Town was abandoned Saturday when the home team walked off the field after one of its players was racially abused.
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Haringey, a London-based non-league club, walked off in the 64th minute after claims its Cameroonian goalkeeper Valery Pajetat had been targeted by racial abuse by visiting fans minutes earlier, when Yeovil took a 1-0 lead from a penalty.
.@HaringeyBoroFC keeper Pajetat getting lots of support from the Haringey fans 💛💙 pic.twitter.com/ytLNLSw4Jz
— Charlotte Nichols (@charlotte2153) October 19, 2019
Haringey manager Tom Loizou told BBC Radio 5 Live that defender Coby Rowe was also racially abused, and that “there was no way I could let him continue.”
The match at Coles Park Stadium was in the fourth qualifying round for the FA Cup, with the winner advancing to the first round of the tournament.
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“The abuse a few of my players got was disgusting,” Loizou said. “Yeovil’s players and manager were different class. Their team tried to calm their supporters down, they tried their best and they supported us. They said, ‘If you’re walking off, we’re walking off with you.’ I took the decision to take my team off and I don’t want Yeovil Town to get punished for it. If we get thrown out of the FA Cup and they go through, there is no hard feelings there.”
“It was not a hard decision to walk off. My goalkeeper was spat at, they were making monkey chants and we had bottles thrown at us... we are angry this has happened in our backyard,” @HaringeyBoroFC captain @rakmauric tells @skynews after their game against Yeovil was called off. pic.twitter.com/vLTyIHHoMa
— Noel Phillips (@Noel_Phillips) October 19, 2019
The incident comes four days after England’s European Championship qualifier in Bulgaria was stopped twice in the first half as home fans hurled racial abuse at England’s black players. However, England decided to play on and won 6-0.
In a statement on Twitter, the football anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out praised the “swift and decisive action” taken by the Haringey manager Tom Loizou and his players.