Glen Kamara has revealed that he felt victimised and “like a little boy” when he was allegedly racially abused by Slavia Prague’s Ondrej Kudela in a Europa League tie last month.
The Rangers midfielder said that he would walk off the pitch if he had the chance to relive the incident and challenged Uefa to tackle racism in football, insisting that not enough is being done to eradicate the problem.
Slavia face Arsenal tonight and Police Scotland had planned to question Kudela on the incident at Ibrox on March 18 when he arrived in the UK, but the 34-year-old is serving a provisional one-match suspension from Uefa and he did not travel to England in any case as Slavia say that he is struggling with health issues.
Kamara is also under investigation by Uefa for allegedly having assaulted Kudela in the tunnel following the 2-0 defeat. Slavia deny that their player made a racial comment and claim that Kudela called Kamara a “f***ing guy” when he approached his opponent and made a comment in his ear.
“I had so many different emotions and felt like a victim,” Kamara told ITV News. “I just felt like a little boy. It was a very weird feeling. It was such a big stage, Europa league, a big tournament and it was ... I don’t know what it’s called, [how to] really explain how I felt. Hopefully I never have to feel that again, really.
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“If I could go back to the time of the game, I’d walk off the pitch a hundred per cent. My manager [Steven Gerrard] was actually trying to get me off the pitch, but I was on my own on the pitch. I couldn’t hear anybody, and I was just [feeling] different emotions. So I wasn’t listening.
“Because this kind of thing, shouldn’t be in the game. It’s an everyday life thing, I think. I don’t know if, in our lifetime, we will see it change but, if I can make a change in some way, I’ll do it.”
Rangers, a number of other Premiership clubs and the Scotland national team have stopped taking a knee in response to the incident. They believe that the protest has gone unnoticed and that more must be done to tackle racism. Kamara said that he has received racist abuse on social media every day since the incident occurred.
“I feel like I need to tell my story,” Kamara said. “The online messages I’ve been getting, the racial abuse online, Instagram, Twitter, wherever else. I felt like I need to tell my story and, as the victim, I feel like it needs to be said.
“And [because of] the amount of statements Slavia have been putting out, I think I need to play it right and tell my story, my side of the story and the truth. I feel like it’s over to Uefa now and, hopefully, they can come up, come out with a response.
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“It [taking a knee] hasn’t changed anything. We’ve done it for a whole season and towards the end of the season, what’s come about it? It hasn’t changed anything.”
