Swedish referee suspended for racist comments

The disciplinary committee of the Swedish federation has found that Martin Strömbergsson, a 43-year-old referee with international experience, urged Keita (a Swedish player of Guinean origin through his father) during a match to return to the goal to have bananas "thrown" at him.

"Martin claims that he had no racist intent when he said it. We have no reason to doubt that, but we believe it is a very unfortunate expression and it is evident that it can be insulting. After what happened, it is not appropriate for him to officiate more matches for the rest of 2020," the statement says.

The Swedish league started a few weeks ago and will end on December 6, two months later than usual, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It was the player himself who revealed a few weeks ago on a football podcast that last season, Strömbergsson told him, "Stop talking, go back to your goal so they can throw bananas at you."

Keita's revelation prompted the Swedish Football Association to open an investigation and for the referee himself to admit to the incident, although he claimed it was a misunderstanding and clarified the phrase.

"Telling the goalkeeper to 'go back to the cage so they can give you a banana' is an expression I have used before as a joke and is not related to skin color but to the role of the goalkeeper. I made a mistake and I want to reiterate once again that it has nothing to do with Aly's darker skin," Strömbergsson said in a statement.

The referee emphasized that he had already apologized to the player after the match and had no problem doing it again.

Keita, however, does not seem convinced by the referee's explanations and intentions.

"He said it was a rhetorical phrase, but I think maybe he was trying to save himself. I was there and I know what he said, there was another player who heard it," Keita said this week to Fotbollskanalen.