Liverpool Football Club have lodged a formal complaint with UEFA over alleged racist abuse against Rhian Brewster. The 17-year-old Reds striker was irate at the end of Liverpool’ 2-0 win in the UEFA Youth Champions League group stage game against Spartak Moscow today.
Liverpool FC U-19 players and coaching staff, including Youth Coach Steven Gerrard himself, had to forcibly restrain Brewster, who was extremely angry over action taken against him by Spartak’s defenders.
“It’s difficult for me to comment on it right now. It’s something that the club will look into and deal with,” Gerrard said.
“I’d rather talk about Rhian Brewster’s performance. I don’t want to take any gloss off that because he was superb.”
According to multiple reports, Liverpool are alleging racist abuses against the U17 World Cup Golden Boot Award winner, and this isn’t the first time that Spartak have been accused of such behavior.
The 17-year-old reported the alleged offence to the referee Mohammed al-Hakim during the game and he passed the details to the fourth official at Prenton Park.
It is the second successive game against Spartak that has ended with allegations of racist abuse towards a Liverpool player. At Spartak’s academy stadium in September, the Nigeria-born forward Bobby Adekanye was subjected to racist chants and gestures from supporters of the Russian club.
Brewster helped lead the young Three Lions to the world championship in the U17 World Cup. The Liverpool U19s currently top Group E, with 15 points from six marches played. Spartak are in second with eight points.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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