Italian soccer team Como has defended a player who allegedly said Wolves’ South Korean forward Hee Chan Hwang “thinks he’s Jackie Chan” during a preseason game on Monday.
Premier League team Wolves said it would submit a formal complaint to European soccer's governing body UEFA following the alleged incident in Marbella.
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“Racism or discrimination in any form is completely unacceptable and should never be left unchallenged,” it said in a statement.
But Como responded by saying the unnamed player did not say “anything in a derogatory manner.”
“Our club does not tolerate racism and condemns all forms of it in the strongest possible way," Mirwan Suwarso, official representative of Como's ownership group said Tuesday. "We spoke to the defender in question to understand what was said. He has told us the comment he made, to his co-defender, was ‘ignore him, he thinks he’s Jackie Chan.’
“Having spoken to our player at length, we are confident this was in reference to the player’s name, and to the constant references of ‘Channy’ made by his own teammates on the pitch.”
Wolves player Daniel Podence was sent off after some of Hwang's teammates reacted angrily to the alleged comment.
“Channy heard a racist remark which is really disappointing. I spoke to Channy about it, checked whether he wanted to take the team off or come off himself, but he was keen the team carried on and got the work they needed," Wolves manager Gary O'Neil said. “It’s really disappointing that it happened, that we have to talk about it and that it impacted the game – not ideal and things like that shouldn’t be around.”
UEFA said it would not be able to act as the alleged incident did not take place during one of its competitions.
“The fight to eliminate racism, discrimination and intolerance from football is a major priority for our organization,” it said in a statement. “While UEFA will continue its fight to eliminate all forms of discrimination in football, the organisation’s disciplinary bodies can only take action for incidents that take place in UEFA competitions.”