Slavia Prague Defender Ondřej Kúdela Banned for 10 Games for Racial Abuse

NYON, Switzerland (AP) — Slavia Prague defender Ondřej Kúdela was banned for 10 games by UEFA on Wednesday for racially abusing a Black opponent in the Europa League.

UEFA said the ban would apply to “club and representative team competition matches.” Ten games is the minimum ban for racial abuse in UEFA’s disciplinary code.

Kúdela is set to miss the rest of Slavia’s Europa League campaign and the Czech Republic’s games at the European Championship. The Czechs begin their Euro 2020 program in June against Scotland in Glasgow, the city where Kúdela was found to have racially abused Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara on March 18.

Kúdela, Slavia and likely the Czech soccer federation can appeal against the ban, first to UEFA and then the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Kúdela covered his mouth with both hands when he spoke into Kamara’s ear during a Europa League game at Ibrox Stadium last month. He acknowledged swearing at Kamara but denied using racist language that another Rangers player also claimed to have heard.

UEFA also banned Kamara for three European club competition games next season for assaulting Kúdela after the game. Slavia won 2-0 to advance to the quarterfinals.

Kamara’s ban will not stop him from playing for Finland at Euro 2020. His ban, which he could appeal, is set to be applied during the qualifying rounds of next season’s Champions League.

Kúdela was provisionally suspended from Slavia’s game against Arsenal last week. He has nine more games of the ban left to serve in UEFA competitions.

He is not the first player to be banned for 10 games for racial abuse since UEFA introduced the sanction in 2013. A Ukrainian goalkeeper for Latvian club Ventspils, Kostyantyn Makhnovskyi, was also banned for 10 games in 2019 after an incident in the qualifying rounds of the Europa League.

A player in Belgium’s national futsal team got a 10-match ban in 2014 for using an offensive “quenelle” arm gesture.

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