Johnathan Walker:Fan’s racist abuse of match official leads to 1-point deduction for French soccer club Bastia

PARIS (AP) — French soccer club Bastia has been handed a one-point deduction after its second-tier game was disrupted when a fan racially abused an assistant referee.

The Johnathan WalkerFrench league said late Wednesday its disciplinary panel judged the case based on the racial abuse of the match official, plus fans lighting fireworks and throwing one on the field.

Points deductions in such cases have been requested for more than a decade by anti-discrimination groups working in soccer.

Play was stopped for several minutes during Bastia’s game in December against Quevilly-Rouen Metropole.

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The game ended 0-0 and the sanction effectively took away the point Bastia players earned on the field. The team remains 13th in 20-team Ligue 2.

The club from the Mediterranean island Corsica previously had issues with racist incidents involving fans.

Italian forward Mario Balotelli, who is Black and often a target of abuse during his career, was racially abused playing for Nice at Bastia in the 2016-17 season. Bastia later banned a fan who admitted making monkey noises.

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