New Zealand’s national men’s football team have abandoned their friendly with Qatar, alleging racial abuse and inaction by officials.
The All Whites took the extraordinary step of refusing to come back out at half-time of a game they led 1-0. It was one of two such incidents in Austria on Monday with the Republic of Ireland Under-21s’ friendly against Kuwait Under-22s also abandoned, after one of the Ireland substitutes was allegedly the target of racist abuse.
New Zealand Football put a short statement on its social media channels after the walk-off. “Michael Boxall was racially abused during the first half of the game by a Qatari player,” the statement read. “No official action was taken so the team have agreed not to come out for the second half of the match.” New Zealand led the match through Marko Stamenic’s 17th minute strike.
The friendly was played at Sonnenseestadion, in Ritizing in Austria, and officiated by Austrian referee Manuel Schuttengruber.