The FAI has issued a formal complaint to UEFA, after a racist incident at a recent Ireland U17s game.
It’s understood that the alleged incident occurred during a recent match against Poland’s U17s, with a racist remark being made to an Irish player.
“The comment was reported to the match officials at the time and the players immediately made Republic of Ireland U17 Head Coach Colin O’Brien aware of the incident. Colin then reported the remark to the match officials two more times during the match,” the FAI said in a statement released today.
“Following the conclusion of the game, FAI officials made a further report to the UEFA delegate and the delegate has since confirmed the incident will be submitted in the final report to UEFA.”
“The Association has offered its full and unequivocal support to the player who was subjected to racism and to his team-mates. The FAI does not tolerate any form of racism towards any of our players or staff and we expect UEFA to investigate fully and take the appropriate action. Racism has no place in the game at any level.”
In the statement, comments were also made by Ireland U17a Head Coach Colin O’Brien, who said that he awaits strong disciplinary action regarding the matter, and that racism and other forms of abuse were not acceptable.
“Racism has no place in the game at any level and no-one should be subjected to any form of abuse. It has no place in society and as a staff and a team, we’ve offered our full support to our player. I’m fully supportive of the Association escalating the incident up to UEFA and we await strong disciplinary action from the authorities to send a message out that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated.”
