The battle between Paris St-Germain (PSG) and Istanbul Basaksehir lasted for only 14 minutes after it was stopped due to alleged racial slurs from an official.
Players from PSG and Istanbul walked out of the match following the sudden announcement of the game's cancellation after the fourth official threw racial comments to the Turkish team's assistant coach Pierre Webo, a Cameroonian.
The Basaksehir players were the first to abandon the match, followed by the footballers from PSG. The departure of the participants prompted the match to a scoreless conclusion. They were instructed to return at 4 p.m., but no one came back.
The Istanbul squad accused that Romanian match referee Sebastian Coltescu was heard talking to their assistant coach Webo about the color of his skin.
Webo was handed a red card by the Coltescu and pointed out that the latter was hitting him below the belt.
"Why [did] you say negro?," the Cameroonian assistant coach repeated in the live broadcast of the French channel RMC Sport.
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In a Twitter report by Get French Football News, Istanbul forward Demba Ba, who was the first one to leave the field, reminded the officials that black players never get the same respect as their white counterparts. "You never say this white guy. Why when you mention a black guy, you have to say this black guy?"
PSG center-back Presnel Kimpembe was in disbelief after saying that they were heading in all of a sudden. It was seconded by another PSG player, forward Kylian Mbappe, who had become more vocal to Coltescu. He said that they could not play with the fourth official after that racial insult.
Coltescu's fellow Romanian referee Ovidiu Haţegan had translated what Coltescu spoke in Romanian, "Ala negru, which in Romanian can translate to 'the black [guy]'."
To continue the postponed match, UEFA announced that the match would start at the 13th minute tomorrow. It also means that a new set of match referees will officiate the game. "A thorough investigation on the incident that took place will be opened immediately."
Meanwhile, Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdogan tweeted that the UEFA should make a significant move to address the recent problem. "We are unconditionally against racism and discrimination in sports and in all areas of life."
CNN reported that UEFA had already finalized the replacement referees for the PSG-Istanbul match to be held at Parc des Princes. More importantly, the European football organization appointed Dutch referee Danny Makkelie to be the new head referee together with Mario Diks, who is also from the Netherlands, and Polish referee Marcin Boniek.
Bartosch Frankowsky of Poland will be the replacement for Coltescu as the fourth official. Italian Maurizio Mariani and Marco Di Bello will be assigned to be the video assistant referees of tomorrow's match.
Coltescu was also involved in the controversial scandals in 2013. The Romanian referee threw 13 yellow cards and seven red cards in a match between Gaz Metan and Petrolul. When Sergiu Muth confronted Coltescu due to a questionable call, Coltescu defended himself by grabbing Muth's neck.
Another incident that happened in 2015 was the Astra-Steaua match. The involved players denounced Coltescu's call after he only handed a yellow card to an Astra player. The unfair call saw that three goals were not counted for the visiting team.
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