UEFA bans Slavia Prague’s Ondřej Kúdela for 10 games for racist behavior

Slavia Prague defender Ondřej Kúdela has been banned for 10 matches by UEFA after the governing body’s investigation into allegations of the player’s “racist behavior” towards Rangers’ midfielder Glen Kamara during the sides’ UEFA Europa League meeting at Ibrox stadium last month.

The incident occurred late in the match when Kúdela was seen saying something into Kamara’s ear with his hand covering his mouth.

After the game, Rangers manager Steven Gerrard spoke to the media where he confirmed that Kamara told him that he was racially abused by Kúdela.

Kamara subsequently gave an interview to UK broadcaster ITV News earlier this month in which he claimed Kúdela said to him: “You’re a monkey, you’re a f**king monkey and you know you are.” Kúdela denies the claims.

In a statement on Wednesday, Slavia Prague’s President Jaroslav Tvrdík said the club respected UEFA’s decision.

“Ondřej Kúdela should not have approached the opposition player,” Tvrdík said.

“I deeply regret that and apologise to Glen Kamara for a situation that has clearly caused distress to him and his teammates, as well as everyone associated with Slavia and Rangers.

“I am taking positive steps to prevent such a situation from happening in our club ever again.”

UEFA has also handed Kamara a three-game ban “for assaulting another player” in relation to the same March 18 match.

Neither Rangers nor Kamara responded to CNN’s request for comment.

European football’s governing body also announced that it has banned Rangers striker Kemar Roofe for four matches “for dangerously assaulting another player.”

The striker was sent off late in the same game after a brutal collision with Slavia Prague goalkeeper Ondřej Kolář.

After the match, Roofe also received racist abuse on social media, posting a screenshot of the abuse on his Instagram account.

“I could be here all night screenshoting all of these types of comments,” Roofe said in the post.

Last year, Facebook and Instagram announced they would set up a team to fight racism on their platforms and assess racial bias in their algorithms but clubs have called on such platforms to do more to hold users responsible.

Instagram told CNN at the time that it was continuing to investigate Roofe’s post and said it had removed a number of comments and accounts that broke the rules.