Haringey Borough walk off in FA Cup tie vs Yeovil after goalkeeper 'racially abused'

Haringey Borough have walked off in their FA Cup fourth qualifying round clash with Yeovil after their goalkeeper was reportedly racially abused.

Rhys Murphy was preparing to take a penalty for the visitors in the 64th minute when Yeovil fans appeared to throw objects at goalkeeper Valery Douglas Pajetat.

Yeovil’s captain went over to supporters, as did the referee, before players from the home side opted to leave the pitch.

The goalkeeper alleged he was the subject of racist taunts and spat at by away fans and was said to be “visibly upset”, with team-mate Coby Rowe amongst those to react angrily and be restrained by security.

Security attempted to escort a number of supporters out of the stadium but they resisted and refused to leave.

The game, with a place in the first round proper up for grabs, was held up for more than 20 minutes with players back in the changing rooms as officials considered how to deal with the incident.

Eventually, the game was abandoned.

Cameroonian goalkeeper Pajetat, at the centre of the incident, played in Portugal for a number of years before joining Margate in 2016.

He joined Haringey Borough, who play in the Isthmian League Premier Division, in 2017 and has established himself as their first-choice goalkeeper.

The alleged incident comes just days after England’s game with Bulgaria was twice halted in the first half with players threatening to walk off over racial abuse.

After the sickening scenes in Sofia, FA chief Greg Clarke noted that racism remained an issue in the English game.

He said: “I think at UEFA we need to really address that, but to be perfectly frank we also still need to address racism in England.

“We still have it, we have it throughout the pyramid, we see examples of it every week from the professional game down to the grassroots game.

“We shouldn’t take the moral high ground, we should join a movement to drive racism out of our game and have zero tolerance for it.”