Galatasaray chief shamefully accuses Liverpool of ‘cover up’ over racist abuse of Ibou Konate
Galatasaray secretary general Eray Yazgan has shamefully accused Liverpool of making ‘imaginary statements’ after the Merseyside club strongly condemned racist abuse directed at Ibrahima Konate after the teams’ Champions League match on Wednesday night.
As per The Athletic, the vile comments made to the Reds defender appear to have stemmed from a challenge on Victor Osimhen which resulted in an awkward fall and subsequent arm injury for the Nigerian striker.
The Turkish club had already threatened to file a lawsuit over the injury that Noa Lang sustained when colliding with a pitchside advertising board, which left him requiring surgery, and one Istanbul-based executive has now hit out at LFC with comments of extreme ignorance.
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Galatasaray chief accuses Liverpool of ‘cover-up’ over Konate abuse
As per Turkish outlet A Spor, Yazgan raged: “Liverpool has not offered a single apology to our club or our player. This is unacceptable. This silence and disregard for responsibility is an attempt to cover up the incident.
“While Liverpool hasn’t even apologised, we see them trying to divert attention by bringing up imaginary statements they claim were made on social media against their own player Konate.
“While there is a serious situation threatening the player’s health, Liverpool is trying to change the subject. A club like Liverpool should first account for the scandal that happened on their pitch and offer the necessary apology without delay.
“UEFA has launched an investigation into the incident in which Lang was injured. We have also had contact with them. We will not let this go.”
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Yazgan’s comments are despicable and inaccurate
These comments from Yazgan are incredibly ignorant and insulting, and they’re also inaccurate – the replies to a post on X from Liverpool Echo reporter Ian Doyle on this story include screenshots which show a series of monkey emojis being directed at Konate on Instagram.
The Galatasaray chief is basically brushing aside a hate crime aginst the French defender (for which there’s evidence) because of an accident which left one of their players with an injury, completely ignoring that the LFC fans in attendance sympathetically applauded Lang as he left the pitch on a stretcher.
It should also be made clear to him that, when the Netherlands international was on the ground in agony after the pitchside collision, Konate was one of the first people to come over to him and check if he were OK (see image below).
Yazgan has made a complete fool of himself with his incendiary and disgusting comments, and Liverpool FC has launched an investigation into what exactly happened which led to Lang’s injury on Wednesday (The Athletic), so it’s not as though the club are brushing the incident under the carpet.
If anything, LFC would be within their rights to file a complaint for defamation against the Galatasaray chief over his scurrilous remarks denying (and basically condoning) the racist abust directed at one of our players.
Eray Yazgan, you should be ashamed of yourself.
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