Ireland U-21 player, Sinclair Armstrong, has revealed in a podcast that he is 'proud of himself for not hitting' the Kuwait player who allegedly racially abused him during a friendly match last month.
The Ireland U-21s were playing against Kuwait's U-22s in Austria when the incident occurred. Ireland were leading in the game, but it was called off around the 60th minute mark after sub Armstrong was allegedly racially abused by one of Kuwait's players.
Following the remark, the game was abandoned, and both the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and Kuwait Football Association (Kuwait FA) expressed differing views on the matter.
The FAI supported Armstrong and stated, 'We do not tolerate any racism towards any of our players or staff.' They also confirmed that they would report the issue to FIFA and UEFA.
"The FAI does not tolerate any racism towards any of our players or staff, and will be reporting this serious matter to FIFA and UEFA," they stated in June.
On the other hand, Kuwait FA released their own statement, denying the allegations and claiming that the game was called off due to 'excessive force' rather than racial abuse.
"The Kuwait Football Association confirms that the circulated news is false and categorically rejects such accusations, especially considering the match did not reach completion due to excessive roughness and tension between the players," they said in their statement.
A month later, Armstrong has spoken about the incident and shared his initial thoughts after the remark on the Training 121 podcast.
"With the incident, I say this with me being proud of myself. When it was said, I kind of froze," said Armstrong.
"I had never experienced racism on the pitch. I remember going out to warm up. It was me and Killian Phillips. He was right beside me. The lad made a gesture, and me being me, I just laughed."
Armstrong also revealed that he had contemplated hitting the player but ultimately decided not to, a decision he was proud of at the time.
"Then, he said what he said, and I looked at him thinking, 'There is no way he just said that.' It's kind of like the devil and the angel on my shoulder. Should I go and punch him? Or calm yourself and see what happens," he added.
"My initial thought was just to get the linesman involved. He was all the way down there, so obviously, he didn't hear anything. I called the linesman, 'Did you hear what he said?'
"Then, Killian was going mad, more mad than me. He went over to the lad. Everyone was like, 'Killian, calm down, what was said?' Killian said what was said, our bench got up, and their bench got up.
"But I am proud of myself because I know I could have hit him. There was no one stopping me from hitting him, but I just thought, if I hit this lad, I'm not going to get anything out of it."
Armstrong believes that the only solution to this issue is more education on the subject. He asserts that without better education, things will not improve.
"Obviously education, because in my opinion, I don't think anyone is born racist," added Armstrong.
"Even little kids, younger than my 13-year-old brother, would say stuff. I remember walking a few weeks ago, hearing stuff, and I'm thinking, 'Where is the education?'
"In order to stop it, I remember a player suggesting point deductions. But as a football fan, let's say a fan said something to a player, you wouldn't really want to say something knowing it could cost you a title, cost you a playoff place, cost you promotion or cost you relegation.
"It could be point deductions, you can ban people from stadiums, but at the end of the day, I feel like it's just education. It's wrong. You can't be saying this sort of stuff on the pitch. It happens again and again, but I hope I see change. We have to talk about it. Hopefully, we do see change."
To listen to the full podcast click here
