Cheikh Sarr has stood before the microphones three days after he became the focus of all eyes for his reaction to the racist insults coming from the stands in the last game of his team, Rayo Majadahonda, against Sestao. The Senegalese apologized to the entire football world for his response: he grabbed a fan who was verbally attacking him from the stands by the scarf. But he also considered his subsequent expulsion from the match as unfair: “If I receive a sanction, it will surprise me, because it would be unfair. A person cannot be the victim and then punish them,” the 23-year-old goalkeeper said on Tuesday.
Although he expressed regret for his actions, Sarr acknowledged that it “really bothers him” to ask for forgiveness when he is the victim of the situation, but that it seemed like the right thing to do. “I'm not doing it for this guy. [el aficionado que le insultó], but because of the image of football,” said the man who had to put up with being called a “fucking black man” or a “fucking black man,” in his own words. “My reaction was that because I wanted to talk about it and I grabbed him to ask him why he had insulted me and if he had a family. On top of that, he was an older person and he has to be an example,” said the goalkeeper, who assures that his intention was never to physically attack the fan.
Sarr also thanked the expressions of support he has received, which have been joined by his club and his own teammates, as well as players from Sestao, a rival team that plays at home on the field where the attack occurred. Vinicius Júnior, a Real Madrid player who has become the most visible face in the fight against racism in Spain, also demonstrated his empathy with the Majadahonda goalkeeper, something that the Senegalese himself appreciated and praised when he had the opportunity. .
According to the Rayo Majadahonda board, Sarr has the full support of the institution so that the sanction imposed is invalidated. The referee of the match wrote in the minutes that the goalkeeper had addressed him in a “violent manner.” Given this, Sarr affirms that he only approached to talk. “My act on the referee was not an aggressive act. I went to talk about it and express it, and suddenly I saw the red card. “Then I spoke with him and after the game he supported me and I am grateful,” he added to downplay the referee's way of acting, which has also been a point of criticism.
The vice president of Rayo Majadahonda, Iñaki Acha, assured this newspaper that the club will appeal if there is a sporting sanction for its goalkeeper, something that they hope the Technical Committee will resolve in their favor this Wednesday: “I hope they have a little empathy ”. So far, the only thing that the institution has been able to do, as he comments, has been to appeal to the referee's report, to reverse the fact that Sarr approached the referee in a “violent manner” and hope that this will be reversed. the penalty.
Acha went down to his team's locker room a few minutes after the incident and that was when the captain of Rayo Majadahonda, Jorge Casado, and the rest of the players conveyed their refusal to continue playing. “From the first moment, the club's position was always to support our players one hundred percent, because with these issues there can be no half measures,” the manager points out. The same vice president reports that it was he who personally accompanied Sarr, whom he describes as “a calm kid, who had never gotten into any problem,” to file a complaint with the Ertzaina, which has led to subsequent investigations into the case. . “I had never experienced something similar so close, it is very hard to see a 23-year-old kid completely sunk, staring into space, not knowing what was happening. It is hard to digest,” says Acha.
He also points out that there has not been a major approach on the part of Sestao, beyond the statement posted by the rival on their social networks, but he affirms that it is not something to which he gives much importance, because the situation is no longer in the hands of sports institutions. “As there is already a complaint involved, it will be the Ertzaina who decides whether this ends in a trial or not, and they will have to do the appropriate investigations, but that is no longer a club problem,” he points out.
Finally, Acha shares his diagnosis about the fight against racism in Spain, something he defines as “a basic problem that has education as a solution”, but at the same time he points out that this does not mean that nothing can be done in the present. “If we have to be in the stands and see this type of behavior, whether in a grassroots soccer game or on any field, we do not have to be ashamed or afraid to point out the person, and if it persists, to call the police. to identify it. Of course, afterwards there must be an exemplary economic sanction and it must be complied with. Unfortunately, people don't think about things until you touch their pocketbook,” he summarizes. If in the First Division it is sometimes difficult to identify the aggressors, Acha assures that in the lower divisions it is even worse: “One thing is a First or Second Division, where there are cameras and microphones everywhere and you can control a little more, and another It's the rest of the categories. In categories like ours, it is difficult to find those responsible,” he concludes.
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