FIFA said on Tuesday that it opened disciplinary procedures against Pachuca player Gustavo Cabral following an incident involving real Madrid‘s Antonio Rüdiger On Sunday, during their club World Cup match, which caused the anti-discrimination protocol to activate.
“Following an assessment of the match reports, the FIFA disciplinary committee opened procedures against the FF player Pachuca Gustavo Cabral in relation to the incident of him and Antonio Rüdiger of Real Madrid during the World Cup World Cup match played in Charlotte on June 22,” told Reuters Fifus.
Match referee Ramon Fouatti activated the anti-discrimination protocol crossing his forearms in front of his chest five minutes after a brief fight broke out after an apparent fault on Germany International Rüdiger.
Asked at a post-match press conference if Rüdiger had been the victim of racism, the Real Madrid coach, Xabi Alonso, said: “This is what Rüdiger said, and we believe it.”
FIFA did not specify the nature of disciplinary action.
Cabral denied having racily abused the Madrid defender.
“There was nothing racist. I called him” chickens – “as we say in Argentina, that’s all,” Cabral told journalists in Spanish after the match.
Reuters’ information was used in this report.