Millwall boss complains about stoppage after player racially abused

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FT Desk

Millwall manager Alex Neil says play should not have been stopped in their game versus Swansea on Tuesday despite a visiting player receiving racist abuse at The Den.

During the Championship fixture, referee Edward Duckworth paused the game for seven minutes while speaking to Neil and Swansea boss Vitor Matos. It was determined that Ji-sung Eom had been abused while warming up at the side of the pitch as a substitute.

"The situation was with Ji-sung Eom," Matos confirmed post-match.

"The referee followed the protocol for these sort of situations, they did the right thing. Millwall also did the right thing to get the protocol moving on.

"We all know there is no space for this, this kind of situation should not happen.

"When they do happen we are here to stand with the player, in this case it is our player."

Millwall security then spent a further eight minutes looking to find the perpetrators in the crowd, which meant the play was stopped for 15 minutes in total.

Though Neil understands the gravity of the situation, he believes the game should not have been stopped for that long as it killed his team's momentum, with Swansea going on to win 1-0 with a last-minute goal from Ronald.

"I understand there's been an incident. It's not something I'm going to get involved in," he said after the game.

"That'll be for the authorities to deal with. But the fact that it stops the game for 15 minutes, | just don't see the point. It needs to get dealt with, absolutely, but stopping the game doesn't deal with anything. All it does is kill the momentum...

"Listen, if we score l probably don't feel this way, but that's how I feel just now."

Millwall stated they were "aware of an alleged, individual incident of discriminatory abuse towards a Swansea City player during the second half" of the game.

"The club operates a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of discriminatory abuse. Any individual found to have engaged in such behaviour will face the strongest possible action," the club added.

"The club is working alongside the relevant authorities to establish the facts and is unable to comment further as tonight's alleged incident is the subject of an ongoing police investigation, which the club fully supports."

Swansea have enjoyed their best start to a season in a century and the victory extended their lead at the top of the Championship to two points ahead of Middlesbrough.