Valencia president Anil Murthy on Diakhaby racism incident
The Athletic FC Podcast
The Athletic
4.0 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2021
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Athletic's Adam Crafton speaks to Valencia president Anil Murthy to get his view on the incident which took place during the game between Valencia and Cadiz on Sunday when Valencia defender Mouctar Diakhaby accused Cadiz's Juan Cala of racially abusing him, which lead to the Valencia players leaving the pitch for 20 minutes.
The following days have seen Cala issue a strong denial that he used the language he was accused of using, and in turn Valencia have continued to come out strongly in support of Diakhaby.
In this interview Anil Murthy explains his thoughts on how the incident was dealt with at the time, how he thinks La Liga and Spanish football should deal with any future incidents of this nature, and he expresses his disappointment with the lack of progress being made on racism in football.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic |
| 0:02.7 | Hello and welcome to a bonus edition of an Athletic podcast. |
| 0:09.5 | We're joined today by the Valencia president, Anil Murphy. |
| 0:14.3 | I am Adam Crafton, a reporter at The Athletic, |
| 0:17.2 | and we are here predominantly to discuss the incident that took place during a game between |
| 0:22.8 | Cadiz and Valencia in La Liga on Sunday evening. During the game, around half an hour into the |
| 0:29.2 | match, Cadiz defender Juan Calla was accused by the Valencia defender Mukta Diakabi of racial abuse. It subsequently led to Valencia's |
| 0:40.5 | players leaving the pitch for over 20 minutes and what has followed is an extraordinary |
| 0:45.1 | two and throw between the two players and the two clubs in the subsequent days. During a press |
| 0:51.0 | conference on Tuesday, on Tuesday afternoon, Juan Caller said, I am in a state of shock. I'm being |
| 0:57.4 | accused of something I know nothing of. There was a clash between us and I told him, leave me in peace. |
| 1:04.1 | I don't know what Diacabhi thought he heard if he misheard or has invented something. I just told |
| 1:10.3 | him to leave me in peace. |
| 1:12.5 | Calla repeatedly claimed he was the victim of a public lynching. Nobody deserves this public |
| 1:18.0 | lynching that I have been suffering these days, Calla added. This has all become a circus, |
| 1:24.0 | and I will take legal action against all the people who have tried to play with my honour. |
| 1:28.6 | My lawyers are compiling the information. |
| 1:31.1 | In response to that, well, Valencia have reiterated that they believe their player, Muktau Diacabi. |
| 1:36.6 | They've started a trend on Twitter, which is, I believe, Muktaud Diakabi is the hashtag. |
| 1:42.2 | And they said in a statement, Valencia Football Club are deeply |
| 1:45.6 | saddened by statements made by Cadiz player Juan Caller this Tuesday. Cala has missed a great |
| 1:51.1 | opportunity to accept his mistake and apologised the player affected. Instead of doing this, |
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