Super Eagles-eligible midfielder Chrisantus Uche has faced backlash after his recent comments about La Liga referees and racial abuse, Soccernet.ng reports.
The Getafe star, who has been turning heads since joining the Spanish club, opened up about his frustrations in an interview with ESPN Africa, but his candid remarks have now drawn the attention of Getafe president Ángel Torres.
Uche, who is making waves in Spain after starting his European career at Moralo CP and AD Ceuta, criticised the officiating in La Liga and spoke about the racial slurs he’s encountered during matches.
He claimed that referees often overlooked fouls committed against him while penalising similar challenges on other players, describing the experience as “painful.”
“In my first two or three La Liga games, I saw with my own eyes that the referees are very bad,” Uche told ESPN Africa. “They hit me, and the referee just told me to get up. It’s a foul, and he has to blow the whistle. But when they hit another player, the referee blows immediately. It’s very painful; you have no power because the referee can do whatever he wants. He has to stop this.”
The 21-year-old midfielder also expressed distress over racial abuse, revealing that he has been called derogatory names on the pitch, with no intervention from match officials.
“They call me a f***ing black man, and the referees do nothing,” Uche said, though it was unclear whether these incidents occurred in La Liga or during his time in Spain’s lower leagues.
However, Getafe president Ángel Torres responded sharply to Uche’s remarks. Speaking to El Chiringuito TV as quoted by Mail Online, Torres claimed Uche made a complete mistake in his statements and hinted at a possible miscommunication due to language barriers.
“He has made a complete mistake,” Torres said. “I will talk to him, as I haven’t seen the full interview. I don’t want to justify it, but someone who doesn’t speak Spanish, with a microphone in front of him, it seems to me that the journalist is more at fault.”
Uche’s comments have sparked a conversation about both the treatment of players on the pitch and the handling of racial abuse in La Liga.
Despite this controversy, reports suggest that Uche has been named in the provisional squad for Nigeria’s upcoming fixtures, although the Nigeria Football Federation has yet to confirm this.