James McClean has praised the Republic of Ireland's U21 team for "showing solidarity" after one of their players was allegedly the target of racist abuse
The Republic of Ireland Under-21s’ friendly against Kuwait Under-22s was abandoned after one of the Ireland substitutes was allegedly racially abused.
McClean has been the victim of racism throughout his playing career in the England and credited the Irish youngsters for how they reacted to the situation on Monday.
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He told RTE: "Credit to them. Fair play. It's showing that they're with their teammate.
"All I can say is absolute credit to the lads for how they handled themselves, walking off the pitch and showing solidarity with their teammate. It shouldn't happen but fair play to them."
Monday afternoon’s game at the Parktherme Arena in Bad Radkersburg, Austria was brought to a premature conclusion in the second half with Jim Crawford’s men leading 3-0.
The Football Association of Ireland posted on Twitter: “The FAI regrets to announce that today’s U21 international against Kuwait has been abandoned after a racist remark was made by a Kuwaiti player towards one of our substitutes.
“The FAI does not tolerate any racism towards any of our players or staff and will be reporting this serious matter to FIFA and UEFA.”
Ireland led 2-0 at the break after early goals from Ollie O’Neill and Conor Carty, and extended their advantage seven minutes after the restart through Aidomo Emakhu, making his debut after being introduced as a half-time substitute.
Crawford spoke out passionately in March after members of Ireland’s Under-15s squad were racially abused online, prompting the FAI to brand the perpetrators’ actions “vile and horrific”.
Monday’s game came at the end of a training camp in Austria designed to prepare them for September’s European Championship qualifiers against Turkey and San Marino, and four days after they fought back to draw 2-2 with Ukraine Under-21s.
Meanwhile, in Ritzing, also in Austria, New Zealand refused to take the field for the second half after no action was taken over alleged racism in their friendly against Qatar.
NZ Football tweeted: “Michael Boxall was racially abused during the first half of the game by a Qatari player.
“No official action was taken so the team have agreed not to come out for the second half of the match.”
The incident occurred shortly before half-time, leading to a reported melee on the pitch before the teams went in for the interval with the All Whites leading 1-0.
FIFA is set to examine reports on the two separate instances of alleged racism.
FIFA would be expected to take a tough stance if one or both of the allegations are found proven.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said last week: “It’s very important not just to talk about racism and discrimination, but to take action in a decisive and convincing manner – zero tolerance.
“There is no football if there is racism – so let’s stop the games.
“The referees have this opportunity in FIFA competitions as we have this process for stopping the game, and actions have to be taken at every level, at national level as well.”
Infantino made the remarks after meeting with the Brazil squad in Barcelona, including Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior who has been on the receiving end of repeated racial abuse in Spain this year.
The Kuwaiti federation published a tweet in which Olympic football team director Jarrah Al Ateeqi claimed the match had been abandoned “due to roughness and excessive tension between the players”.
