Malaysia FA offer apology to Chelsea and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Yossi-Benayoun-c37520 after anti-Semitic abuse claim
The Malaysia Football Association apologized to English Premier League side Chelsea after the club complained their player Yossi Benayoun had faced abuse during the fixture against Malaysia XI. According to the club, the abuse had been anti-Semitic in nature and had been directed at the 31-year-old Israeli international.
Benayoun, who signed for Chelsea last summer from Premier League rivals http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Liverpool-c39809, missed out the better part of last season due to injury. He returned towards the end of last season and was picked by new manager Andre Villas-Boas to feature for the Blues in their clash against Malaysia XI in the London side’s Tour of Asia.
It was noticed that whenever the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Israel-c2925 international touched the ball, there was jeering from the crowd. This caused the club to release a statement regarding the incident, which urged the Malaysia FA to take action over the incident. It was initially thought that Benayoun was made the target of abuse because of a harsh tackle, but in the end it was agreed the abuse was racist in nature.
An official statement by the Malaysia FA read:
“The FA of Malaysia have received a complaint from English Premier League side Chelsea FC over alleged racist abuse targeted at Israeli midfielder, Yossi Benayoun, during a friendly match with the Malaysian XI in Kuala Lumpur on 21st July 2011.
From our initial observations, if such an incident took place, it would have involved a small section of spectators at the match and this surely does not reflect the feelings of the majority of fans in this football-loving country.”
While they insisted they had no knowledge of the incident and in no way condoned racism, the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Malaysia-c2949 FA offered their apologies to the club and the player. The statement further stated:
“The FA of Malaysia would like to strongly register that we do not condone any form of racism in football.
If such an incident did happen, we would like to apologise to the player concerned, and also to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 FC.”
Tags: