Wolves will lodge a complaint with UEFA after claims of racism in the clash with Como

Wolves will lodge a formal complaint with UEFA after South Korean striker Hee Chan Hwang claimed he was racially abused on Monday by Italian club Como.

The incident took place midway through the second half of a match at Wolves’ pre-season training ground in Marbella and teammate Daniel Podence was sent off in the next match.

Head coach Gary O’Neil spoke to Hwang and gave him the chance to stop the game but the player chose to continue.

O’Neil told the club’s website: “Channy has heard some really embarrassing racist talk. I talked to Channy about it, I checked if he wanted to disband the team or leave himself, but he was determined for the team to continue to find the work they need. It’s really disappointing that it happened, that we have to talk about it and that it affects the game – it’s wrong and things like that shouldn’t exist.

“He’s really disappointed, yes, and understandably so. I am proud that he wanted to continue to put his team first during a difficult time for him. He knew it was a pre-season tour and wanted the guys to work and get their minutes, even though he was dealing with something very offensive. Channy will be ready, he will have our full support and we will pick him up in the morning and make sure he is ready.

Gary O’Neil talks about the incident that overshadowed our first pre-season training game.

🗣️🎥 pic.twitter.com/YCz5sGduyM

– Wolves (@Wolves) July 15, 2024

“It’s a united team. Of course there are ways to handle that and we don’t want to leave ourselves short on the field, but we are a united team. We worked hard this week, we had a good week, we had some good moments in the game, but it’s an unfortunate incident that we have to deal with and we have to talk about, well, when are we going to talk about this game. Yes, when an incident like this happens in the game, it is the first thing we discuss.”

Wolves won the match 1-0 in Serie A, with defender Matt Doherty scoring the only goal after an hour, heading in Rayat Ait-Nouri’s free-kick.