The referee books Mr Evra
111. The corner came to nothing and the ball went out of play with Manchester United being
awarded a goal kick. As the players moved upfield, there was an exchange between Mr
Evra and Mr Kuyt. The referee called Mr Evra over and gave him a yellow card. Mr Giggs
spoke to the referee about the caution and then spoke to Mr Evra.
112. The evidence of Mr Marriner about this incident was as follows. In the 65th minute of the
game, he had to issue a caution to Mr Evra after he saw him push Mr Kuyt in the chest
following a coming together. Mr Evra was clearly upset and mentioned that he was being
called "black". Mr Marriner did not hear whether Mr Evra said who was calling him
"black" and he did not understand what Mr Evra was referring to at the time. Mr Evra
made no other comment to the referee.
113. Mr Evra described the booking in the following way. Mr Kuyt told him to stop diving so
Mr Evra pushed him away. The referee called Mr Evra over to book him. Mr Evra asked
the referee why he was booking him and the referee said it was because he had pushed Mr
Kuyt. When he was being booked, Mr Evra told the referee again that he had been called
black. Mr Evra added that after booking him, the referee spoke to Ryan Giggs. Mr Giggs
then asked Mr Evra what was wrong and Mr Evra told him that he had been called black.
Mr Giggs told Mr Evra to calm down and not get sent off.
114. Mr Giggs gave evidence before us. He said that he was reasonably close to the referee and
after he had shown Mr Evra the yellow card, Mr Giggs approached the referee and asked
him why he had booked Mr Evra. The referee said to Mr Giggs "just calm Patrice down".
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Mr Giggs then moved away from the referee and towards Mr Evra. It was obvious to Mr
Giggs from looking at Mr Evra that he was upset. He said that Mr Evra did not seem quite
with it, you might call it red mist. Mr Giggs said to Mr Evra "what's happened?". Mr Evra
replied "he called me black". Mr Giggs assumed that Mr Evra was speaking about Mr
Kuyt since he had just been booked for some kind of tussle with Mr Kuyt. Mr Giggs said
to Mr Evra "did the ref hear it?", to which Mr Evra replied "I don't think so". Mr Giggs
then told Mr Evra to calm down and not get himself sent off.
115. Mr Kuyt gave a slightly different version from Mr Marriner, Mr Evra and Mr Giggs. He
said that after the goal kick he was close to Mr Evra and said "Come on, let's move on, let's
keep going with the game" and touched Mr Evra just on the arm. According to Mr Kuyt,
Mr Evra reacted aggressively and smashed his arm away and at that point, the referee
having seen the incident, called Mr Evra to him and booked him. Mr Kuyt said that he
was very close to Mr Evra and the referee at this time. He said he was "absolutely certain"
that he heard Mr Evra say that the referee was only booking him because he was black.
116. We found the evidence of Mr Marriner on this point to be credible and plausible. He
recalled Mr Evra telling him that he was being called black. This is consistent with Mr
Evra's evidence of what he told Mr Marriner at that time, and also with Mr Giggs'
evidence of what Mr Evra said to him shortly afterwards. In light of this, we reject Mr
Kuyt's evidence that Mr Evra said that the referee was only booking him because he was
black, however certain Mr Kuyt was that he heard it. Moreover, it would make no sense in
the circumstances for Mr Evra to accuse the referee of only booking him because he was
black. Not only had Mr Evra pushed Mr Kuyt away, which he is likely to have realised
had led to his booking, but his concern at that stage was that he had been called black
(bearing in mind that, at the very least, Mr Suarez admits having called Mr Evra "negro"
by this stage of the game).
