All White details alleged racist incident

Michael Boxall says he has moved on from the alleged racist incident that saw the All Whites’ fixture against Qatar abandoned on Tuesday.

In the 40th minute of the international in Austria, a confrontation between Boxall and Yusuf Abdurisag incited a strong reaction from the All Whites, with New Zealand Football later saying the Qatari winger had directed a significant racial slur towards Boxall, who is of Samoan heritage.

The defender didn’t reveal the nature of the slur but told the Star Tribune it was something he would never say.

“I’m pretty competitive and I say a lot of things that I wouldn’t want my kids to hear, but that’s certainly crossing the line,” Boxall said. “I didn’t really take great offence to it, but I think it’s one of those things you can’t allow on a football field.

“I’m sure it’s a slur he uses colloquially every day, but when it’s directed at another player on the field, you can’t get away with that.”

The episode led to the New Zealand team refusing to take the field in the second half, having reached halftime with a 1-0 lead. Boxall said he was proud of the All Whites for “taking the stand they did” after multiple teammates had heard Abdurisag’s comment.

“We had four, five guys around the ball that were definitely in earshot.” he said. “You can see the video, see the reaction.”

Almost 24 hours after the incident, the Qatar Football Association published a statement confirming words had been exchanged between the players but Abdurisag had used “no racial or discriminatory language”.

Instead, the federation said the Qatari forward, who is black, “stressed that, in fact, he himself was racially abused during the match”.

Boxall said he had not heard from the Qataris and nor was he expecting any personal response.

“If you’ve seen their statement, you wouldn’t expect anything,” he said. “I’ve moved on and I’m ready to get back to work. We’ve taken that stand, and now it’s out of our control and just let the powers that be sort everything out.”

Adrian Heath, Boxall’s club coach at Minnesota United, added his support for the centre back.

“You know what Boxy is like, he just wants to move on,” Heath said. “It’s something that shouldn’t have happened. It happened and [the New Zealand team] made their point and it was a valid one.

“It got the world’s press involved and anything that highlights this type of thing is good, the racism and negativity of that.

“It’s not just in the game, but society as a whole. It’s sad in this day and age we’re still talking about this, but that’s the way it is.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission