Getafe President Angel Torres has followed assistant manager Patri Moreno in asserting that Chrisantus Uche‘s allegations of having suffered racial abuse should not be paid attention to. They claim that his supposed lack of understanding of Spanish means his version of events is unreliable.
This week the Nigerian international gave an interview to ESPN Africa, telling them that he had suffered from racial slurs in La Liga. Moreno said on Wednesday night that while he had not heard what Uche had said, ‘he must be mistaken’, as he doesn’t understand Spanish.
President Torres has taken the same line, rather than backing his player.
“But he doesn’t understand! How can he tell you that? When he has been here for one or two years and understands and speaks Spanish, he can say whatever he wants. Let’s hope that the committees or whoever corresponds understands it,” Torres told Sport.
Clearly, Torres is either unaware or ignoring the fact that Uche has been playing his football in Spain since 2022, first at Moralo in Extremadura and then at Ceuta, from where Getafe signed him. Uche also criticised the referees in his interview, and clearly fearing a ban, Torres also decided that Uche should not be listened to due Spanish not being his native language.
“I don’t want to justify him, but someone who doesn’t speak Spanish and (who) gets the microphone stuck in front of him… The journalist who asks him those things… (Uche says) well, what he everyone hears, that the referees are very bad and he decides to just say that,” justified Torres.
“My press officers are as much to blame for not being there and listening to it (during the interview) as the journalist who asks that question to a kid who has arrived a month and a half ago. But hey, I’ll talk to him and listen to the interview… and I’ll tell him that he’s completely mistaken. Although it is not the right question to ask a boy who has just arrived, it does not justify him having to speak badly about the referees or anyone.”
His response is just as astonishing as that of Moreno before him, clearly having no knowledge of the past of the player that he spent €500k on signing this February. The dismissal of his claims of racism, that should be investigated no matter what, hints at a wider attitude problem with racism that has reared its head at points over the last few years. While more measures are being taken, those attitudes clearly remain at the very top.
