Chennai City FC Raise Racism Complaint Against Referee After Controversial Game With Bashundhara Kings

New Delhi: I-League 2019-20 champions Chennai City FC made a complaint regarding racial abuse directly supposedly at Katsumi Yusa during their 3-2 loss to Bangladesh Premier League champions Bashundhara Kings in the Sheikh Kamal International Club Cup on Thursday.

It was an extremely charged match between Chennai City FC and Bashundhara Kings ever since Yusa raised the complaint of being racially abused by the match referee and the match was halted for more than 10 minutes with Chennai City FC players not taking the field.

Yusa was eventually shown a red card for altercation with the referee and the match continued with eventually a 9-man Chennai City FC bowing out of the tournament with their second straight loss.

After the match, Chennai City FC made an official statement on social media saying that one of their players was indeed racially abused and that they have raised the complaint with AFC Match Commissioner and the Bangladesh Football Federation.

"Targetted derogatory and racist remarks are extremely impudent and harmful for the person at the receiving end. Chennai City FC can confirm one of our players was racially abused by the referee in today's Sheikh Kamal International Club Cup game against Bashundhara Kings

"Club has raised the same with the AFC Match Commissioner and Bangladesh Football Federation officials," Chennai City FC's statement read.

Here is how the incident unfolded:

In the 24th minute, after Chennai City FC were awarded a free kick and Katsumi Yusa stood with the ball, he was seen exchanging a few words with the referee and then he went to his coach. As the referee asked the players to continue the game, Yusa charged towards the referee before his teammates came in between and stopped him.

The match was thereafter paused with Chennai City players having left the pitch and Yusa alleging that the referee using racist language against him. After several minutes of delay, Yusa was shown a red card and it was only in the 35th minute that the Chennai City players made it back to the pitch to begin the game again.

Apart from this incident, Bashundhara head coach Oscar Bruzon and Chennai City officials got into a scuffle on the sidelines after a clumsy foul by Chennai's Mashoor. Chennai coach Akbar Nawas was then sent off for obstructing the play.

In fact, Chennai City FC played the last 20 minutes of the match with just nine men on the pitch after Roberto Eslava was sent off following a second yellow for a foul on Daniel.