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Wolverhampton Wanderers players, including Hwang Hee-chan against Como (X)
Wolverhampton Wanderers’ pre-season win over Como was overshadowed by alleged racial abuse directed at Hwang Hee-chan.
Wolverhampton Wanderers said they will file a complaint with UEFA after their South Korean forward Hwang Hee-chan was the target of an alleged racial remark during Monday’s pre-season match against Italian side Como 1907.
Hwang reported the incident midway through the second half, which led to an angry response from his teammates and saw Daniel Podence sent off for punching a Como player, the midlands club said.
Como did not respond immediately to a request for comment outside normal business hours.
Wolves manager Gary O’Neil said he had asked Hwang if he wanted the match to be abandoned or to be substituted but the 28-year-old wanted the game to continue.
O’Neil said: “Channy heard a racist remark which is really disappointing. I spoke to Channy about it, checked whether he wanted to take the team off or come off himself, but he was keen the team carried on and got the work they needed. It’s really disappointing that it happened, that we have to talk about it and that it impacted the game – not ideal and things like that shouldn’t be around.
“He’s really disappointed, of course, and understandably. I’m proud of the fact that he wanted to carry on and put his team first in a difficult moment for him. He knew it was a pre-season trip and he wanted the lads to work and get their minutes, even though he’d suffered something hugely offensive. Channy will be OK, he’ll get our full support and we’ll pick him up in the morning and make sure he’s OK.
“It’s a together group. Of course, there’s ways to handle that and we don’t want to leave ourselves short on the pitch, but it’s a together group. We’ve worked really hard this week, had a good week, had some great moments in the game, but it’s an unfortunate incident we have to deal with and have to discuss when, ideally, we’d be talking about the game. Of course, when an incident like that happens in a game, it’s the first thing we discuss.”
Wolves won 1-0 at their training camp in Marbella, Spain.
(With inputs from Agencies)
