New Zealand abandon Qatar friendly at half-time over alleged racial abuse

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.

Captain Joe Bell was seen remonstrating with Schuttengruber as they left the field for half-time, before the All Whites made the decision not to return.

Commentator and two-cap All Whites goalkeeper Jacob Spoonley said Boxall, the captain of MLS side Minnesota United, was “a man of huge integrity, of tolerance and patience”.

“To garnish this reaction from him really did raise my eyebrows. To hear the details of the allegations that are being made by this All Whites team, I can completely understand why this action has been taken,” he said.

Boxall is of Kiwi and Samoan heritage.

“They abandoned the game,” Quieroz said. “Apparently two players on the pitch they exchanged words ... the New Zealand players, they decided to support his teammate as it is obvious all our