Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara admits he wishes he had walked off the pitch after being racially abused by Slavia Prague’s Ondrej Kudela.
Kamara recently declared himself vindicated after Kudela dropped an appeal against the 10-match ban imposed on him by UEFA following an incident in a Europa League match at Ibrox on March 18 last year.
In an interview with Livingston assistant manager Marvin Bartley for Sky Sports, Kamara said: “I think everyone can see the shock on my face when it happened and my team-mate, Bongani Zungu, heard it.
“So many different emotions ran through my head at the time – probably anger, embarrassment in a way. Which it shouldn’t be, we are on a football pitch. If I heard it from a fan, I would take it in a bit more, but a player? How should that happen? Why should that happen? It shouldn’t.
“The manager (Steven Gerrard) spoke to me after and said: ‘Do you want to come off the pitch?’ But I couldn’t hear him. I was right next to him but I couldn’t hear him.
“I had tunnel vision. I was like: ‘What is going on? How did that just happen? I’m on TV, my family and friends are watching. It’s embarrassing. How has someone just said that to me and got away with it?’
“It’s weird, I remember thinking ‘why am I feeling embarrassed?’ At the time it was just how I felt.
“The manager was trying to call me and ask ‘Do you want to walk off the pitch? I will support you’.
“I kind of wish I did, knowing it would put the competition in a place where it’s like: ‘What do we do here? Do we kick them out or give Rangers a bye?’
“And it would put them in a situation where they have probably never been in. Not many players have actually walked off.”
The Finland international revealed he still receives racial abuse on social media and is resigned to that situation continuing.
“Let’s say there is any kind of news that comes out about me or him, they will tag me or DM (direct message) me,” the former Arsenal and Dundee player said.
“It’s every now and then, it’s probably way less than it was before, but they still pop up and message me or comment on my pictures.
“That incident, definitely, I have got to live with it.”
