Latest incident with Porto’s Moussa Marega demonstrates players need to do better

Porto players failed to stand with Moussa Marega when he endured racist abuse from fans of his former club.

Porto’s Moussa Marega was the latest player subjected to racist abuse in an incident that is becoming all too common in football. However, this time the situation was made worse by the reaction of his teammates.

Marega did what anyone would do in that situation. He intended to walk off as nothing was being done to stop the abuse being shouted at him. As his teammate, the logical thing to do would have been to stand with him and follow him off the pitch. The Porto players did the opposite of that.

Instead of showing solidarity, not only did they try to talk Marega out of walking off, there were players forcibly holding on to him as if they did not understand why he was reacting the way that he was.

We’ve seen this far too often where it seems like walking off the pitch is the worst thing one can do and players around the victim try to convince him to stay on. The onus is on the referee to deal with the situation either by having an announcement made or simply stopping the game.

The incident went on for a while until they were able to convince Marega to stay and subsequently be subbed off. The situation was not handled properly and no one covered themselves in any glory.

Marega posted a message on his Instagram and said,

"“I would just like to tell these idiots who come to the stadium to make racist chants, go f*** yourself! And I also thank the referee for not defending me and for giving me a yellow card because I defend my skin colour. I hope I never see you on a football field again. You are a disgrace!”"

His anger is perfectly understandable and justifiable. For some reason it seems like in football rarely does anyone know what to do when a player is the victim of racist abuse. Off the pitch, a normal response would be for someone to stop the racist abuse or the victim would walk away is he or she so chose. In football, everyone stands around looking dumbfounded and the referee lets the game continue.

According to Goal, when asked about the reactions of his teammates, Marega said,

"“My teammates don’t understand my reaction. They are shocked that I want to leave the pitch. Their first reaction is to try to calm me down, they know me very well and know that I can do something stupid when I’m upset, they try to calm me down so that I don’t make a big mistake.But I just tell them that with the insults, I can’t go on. It was really no longer possible.”"

Marega is trying to stick up for his teammates a bit but walking off the pitch after enduring racist abuse is neither a mistake or stupid. It’s a rational response that anyone under the same circumstances would make.

Unfortunately, it’s not the first time teammates have failed to back someone who is suffering racial abuse. Infamously, Juventus’ Leonardo Bonucci blamed Moise Kean when he was the victim of racist abuse because Bonucci felt Kean had incited the crowd.

When it comes to knowing what to do in these situations, it’s actually quite very simple. Either stand in solidarity or get out-of-the-way. Until that happens, we’ll continue to see scenes like the one that played out with Moussa Marega. Supporting your teammate shouldn’t have to be a hard choice to make.