Play during the La Liga match between Valencia and Cádiz was stopped after 29 minutes on Sunday after Valencia’s Mouctar Diakhaby allegedly heard a racist insult from Cádiz’s Juan Cala.
According to Marca.com, it’s not known what the insult was, but both players had a “lengthy conversation” with each other and the referees when play was halted. The result of that? A yellow card, which didn’t satisfy Valencia at all. The team then walked off the field together in protest.
After walking off, the team reportedly had a discussion in the locker room about what to do next. According to the team’s Twitter account, Valencia returned to the field after several minutes “to fight for the honor of the club” with the support and encouragement of Diakhaby.
Diakhaby did not return to the game with his teammates, and was substituted with Hugo Guillamon. Cádiz won the match 2-1.
After the game, Valencia captain Jose Gaya gave more details about why the team decided to come out of the locker room after walking off to protest the racial abuse directed at their teammate.
FIFPro, which is the representative body for the players of 63 member nations (including Spain’s), said it would monitor the situation.
According to Sid Lowe of The Guardian, Spanish referees have the power to stop a game in the event of racial abuse. In this case, they did not, and Valencia was essentially forced to come back out and finish the game or lose three points. Lowe reported that Valencia is expected to file a formal complaint.
More from Yahoo Sports:
