Football, racism: Portuguese league fined [Sports]

A few weeks ago, we reported a racist incident in Portugal during the match between Vitoria and FC Porto which pushed Malian international Moussa Marega to leave the field before the end of the match after being the target of racist insults in Guimaraes.

In the aftermath of the incident, the dragon striker who scored the second goal that allowed his club FC Porto to win the victory and several other authorities have demanded sanctions.

This week, the Portuguese Football League forced the Vitoria club to pay a fine of 714 euros. A sanction which, according to analysts and football observers, is light compared to the seriousness of the facts.

They consider it to be a ridiculous amount, especially since, by way of comparison, Vitoria was forced to pay a fine of 4,017 euros for much less serious offenses such as the use of pyrotechnic devices.

Surprised by this light sanction, Marega took to his Instagram account, and wrote “No! That’s a lot. Can I pay for them?’‘.

After widespread criticism, the Portuguese League in its defense stated in a press release that the sanctions taken by the Federation’s disciplinary commission in relation to the Vitoria – FC Porto match were not related to racist insults. However, it confirmed that disciplinary proceedings were in progress. Observers hope that it will lead to much more severe sanctions.

And COVID-19 is taking its toll on sporting events around the world.While organizers of some of the world’s major sporting events, such as the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and public health experts, are opposing the cancellation of these sporting events because of the growing threat of the coronavirus, reassuring that all arrangements are being made to hold them despite the global health emergency, many sporting events have been postponed or canceled because of the virus.

This is the case of the first season of the African Basketball League which was supposed to start in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, on March 13, but was postponed to a later date because of the fear generated by the coronavirus. The League, a partnership between the International Basketball Federation and the NBA, is a new professional basketball league made up of 12 clubs based in Africa.

In Italy, a number of Serie A football matches have been postponed following the outbreak of the virus in the country. After a meeting between the 20 clubs, the Swiss Football League has suspended games until March 23. The matches of the International Champions Cup that were to take place in Asia this year have been canceled.

The Chinese Super League of the Chinese Football Association has also been suspended. This has led to “technical unemployment” for African players in the Chinese league, such as Christian Bassogog of Cameroon, Jean Evrard Kouassi of Ivory Coast, Cédric Bakambu of Congo and Odion Ighalo of Nigeria, to name but a few. Also in China, the WTA event, the Kunming Open scheduled from 27 April to 3 May has been canceled.

In Japan, the trial for the Paralympic Games scheduled for March 12-15 will no longer take place.

In Thailand, the Irish women’s cricket tour for a four-team tournament has been canceled. The same goes for the second motorcycle race of the season, scheduled for March 22. The opening race of the season had already been canceled.

In Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the opening event of the World Triathlon Series, scheduled for March 5-7, has been postponed as a “precautionary measure” after a number of new cases were reported in the city.