Sunday’s showcase friendly between Brazil and Scotland has been marred by allegations of racial abuse directed at Santos star Neymar.
Brazil emerged 2-0 winners in the international friendly match, with forward Neymar scoring both goals in a stand-out performance at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.But reports have emerged of a banana being thrown onto the pitch in north London, with 19-year-old Neymar claiming to have been racially abused during the match.”This atmosphere of racism is totally sad,” Neymar told Brazilian television channel Sportv. “They were jeering me a lot, even when I was about to kick the penalty the entire stadium was jeering.”"We leave our country to play here and something like this happens. It’s sad. I would rather not even talk about it, to keep the subject from escalating.”Neymar became the target of Scotland fans after a lengthy period of treatment by the Brazil physio following a seemingly innocuous challenge in the first half.”The reason Neymar was booed was because we believed he was feigning injury during the course of the game,” Scotland fan groups representative Hamish Husband said.The throwing of bananas at black players was a regrettably common occurrence during British football in the 1970s and 1980s.Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva is believed to have removed the banana from the pitch.”There is no more space for racism in the world,” Leiva said.”They say it’s the first world here in Europe, but it’s where it happens the most.”"That has to change. Everybody is equal today, it’s a matter of respect.”Neither manager claimed to have witnessed the incident.”I didn’t see that,” Brazil coach Mano Menezes said. “We didn’t have the displeasure of watching it. If it happened it is lamentable but we don’t have confirmation of the event.”Scotland boss Craig Levein added: “I don’t know anything about that.”It is not certain who threw the banana, which came from a section of the stadium populated largely by Brazil fans.
Sun 27 March, 2011