Football|The management of AC Oulu was upset by referee Mohammed Al-Emara’s words after the match. In El-Amara’s opinion, the focus of the racism debate is on the wrong issues.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
The Veikkausliiga match was interrupted due to racist shouting.
AC Oulu denies the judge’s claim of “absence of censors” regarding racism.
The referee emphasizes the responsibility of clubs and supporters to tackle racism in football.
According to Mohammed Al-Emara, the referees are left too alone with the intervention of rasim.
The betting league the match between AC Oulu and Inter was stopped on Saturday due to racist shouting. Referee Mohammed Al-Emara stopped the match at about 80 minutes and the match resumed after a short break.
A war of words quickly arose in Oulu due to the referee’s words after the match. Chairman of AC Oulu Oy Tomi Kaismo wrote after the match in X that he felt that Al-Emara stigmatized the club and its supporters.
“We understand that the judge had emotions on the surface. However, it is a really crude statement that, according to him, the club would have its sensors off regarding the issue. I interpret this to mean that the judge claimed the club condoned racism, which is an incomprehensible interpretation,” Kaismo wrote.
AC Oulu’s big boss Tomi Kaismo.
In his article, Kaismo referred to the conversation that the referee and AC Oulu’s background staff had in the comfort of the Raati stadium’s locker rooms after the match. According to Kaismo, there were many people around the open space, and the loud conversation carried far.
“He stopped by our booth. We said we wanted to find out and I asked him to tell me what had happened,” Kaismo says now.
“At first he didn’t answer at all and he seemed to be getting heated in the situation. He first went away and then came back. We asked again. Can you say what was said so we can deal with it with the facts.”
Kaismon according to Al-Emara, the answer “not verbatim” was that the “censors” of the AC Oulu club management are not on when it comes to racism.
“He said that even though he hears things, do you have such sensors on that you haven’t heard anything. I said that we would like more information, and in response I heard that we close our eyes. We specifically asked him for help.”
According to Kaismo, the conversation was so loud that the people nearby “certainly heard”. Journalists were also present.
“When Al-Emara later calmed down, he said his response was an emotional comment. But the damage had happened, and then the matter is questioned in the media and the like.”
Kaismo says that he is particularly upset because AC Oulu has been running a campaign against all kinds of bullying, discrimination and racism for a long time.
“It is completely unreasonable to claim that we don’t have the sensors on, when we have worked by all means to eradicate this kind of behavior.”
AC Oulu celebrated a goal against Ilves in Tammela.
Referee Al-Emara’s view of the situation is different. As he already did in Ruudu’s TV interview, he is even now amazed at how the four referees each heard the racist chant, but none of the organizers heard it.
In Ruuttu’s match recording, right before the end of the 80 minutes of the game, you can hear a shout from the background saying “the referee is fucking Finland”. Al-Emara confirms that this is the cry he is responding to.
At the same time, Al-Emara emphasizes that his purpose in interviewing Ruudu was not to stigmatize AC Oulu or its club community in any other way, but to point out that addressing racism is left to the responsibility of the referee case after case after case.
“I wondered to them how it was possible for four judges to hear the same thing, but the organizer didn’t seem to have any idea about it. We heard that scream, there were more than a thousand people in the stands and the organizer, orderlies and others were there. I think it’s quite reasonable to ask if the sensors are on when this happens,” says Al-Emara now.
According to Al-Emara, the whole discussion about the racist incident immediately went off track when he mentioned “censors”.
“It was taken up immediately. I immediately said that I don’t blame you for anything, I just asked if the sensors were on. We’ve dealt with yelling and stopped games before… so what? If we really want to eradicate racism, it cannot be the job of referees alone. If we don’t want racism in football, we have to act like that too. You have to deal with things.”
Al-Emara says that he emphasized the supporters’ responsibility in Ruutu’s interview because he also wants the spectators to intervene in the shouting when it is appropriate. At least Ruuttu’s microphones picked up the yelling when it happened.
“The purpose was not to single out Oulu fans, but I was wondering what the community’s responsibility is. The fan stand is a community, what is their responsibility in such a situation? Do we just settle for the referee to handle the matter, get some fines, bark at the Football Association and then life goes on?”
“It is no longer enough to announce ‘Racism does not belong in football’, then applaud it and finally nothing happens. This formula no longer works.”
Al-Emara reiterates once again that it does not seek the guilty party or supporters, but calls for accountability. AC Oulu is the organizer of the event and responsible for the events, although it cannot control individual shouters.
“We often wonder among judges if this is only our responsibility to take care of. Yesterday, the scream was aimed directly at me. In such a situation, I have to deal with the matter personally, handle the incident according to protocol, i.e. stop the game, explain 10 times to different people what was shouted, and then there should also be a referee at some point.”
Mohamed Al-Emara admits that he was very frustrated after the match in Oulu.
Referee wants to find ways and solutions in the future and not because “some idiot shouts something”. According to Al-Emara, the current practice is not sufficient, as incidents happen year after year.
“I have never heard, for example, shut up racist after a racist shout. More towards silent acceptance. It feels like things are swept under the rug or the focus of the conversation is shifted elsewhere. That’s what hurts the most, not some lone screaming jerk. It can’t be that there are more than a thousand people in the stands and then they expect me to do something about it.”
Kaismo emphasizes that under his leadership, AC Oulu will not sweep problems under the carpet. They want to ban the shouter from entering the club’s matches, as far as it is possible within the framework of the law.
In Al-Emara’s opinion, AC Oulu’s reaction to the incident has sidetracked the discussion about addressing racism. Has the discussion now moved to the wrong topic’?
“Of course, racism must be eradicated, as well as all kinds of discrimination and bullying. This is the most important thing. But then the judge says we don’t have our sensors on when we ask him for help figuring it out. It was infuriating. And it was because the matter was reported in Kaleva. Yes, there will be inquiries, so I had to react in some way. I could have opened the issue in more detail in my tweet.”
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