UEL match Feyenoord - Roma halted twice by referee Turpin

Football was hit by a fresh racism storm after the referee was forced twice to stop Feyenoord's highly-charged Europa League tie against Roma following apparent incidents of racism. Referee Clement Turpin briefly held up the match towards the end of the first half after an inflatable banana landed on the pitch near Roma's Ivory Coast forward Gervinho on Thursday.

The 32-year-old French official spoke to both managers and a UEFA official before resuming the match. But Turpin was forced to take both teams off the pitch amid concerns for the safety of the players in the 55th minute, following the controversial dismissal of Feyenoord's Mitchell Te Vrede for a challenge on Kostas Manolas, which angered many Dutch supporters, who threw missiles on the field.

The teams returned about 10 minutes later, the match continued in a tense atmosphere and almost immediately substitute Elvis Manu equalised for the Dutch side but Gervinho put Roma 2-1 in front three minutes later which was the final score, giving them a 3-2 win on aggregate. A few seconds earlier, the Feyenoord’s substitute goalkeeper Erwin Mulder had been sent off by the referee, from the bench, for unknown reasons.

“It was right to suspend play as we could have opened a shop with all the objects that were thrown from the stands”, Roma coach Rudi Garcia told Italy's Mediaset channel. “It doesn't help the club, and I'll never cheer that”, Feyenoord coach Fred Rutten said. “Those sorts of things only hurt Feyenoord. It's a shame it happened”.

Source: Daily Mail