Rafael Benitez backs Jonjo Shelvey in racism row

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief | 24 December 2016

Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez voices his backing for midfielder Jonjo Shelvey amid his race row with Wolverhampton Wanderers' Romain Saiss.

Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez has handed his support to Jonjo Shelvey after he was found guilty of directing racial abuse at Wolverhampton Wanderers' Romain Saiss during a game in September.

The Magpies midfielder was handed a five-game ban and a £100,000 fine by the FA following an investigation into the incident, in which several Wolves players claimed that he had referred to Saiss as an "Arab prick".

Shelvey has strongly denied the allegations, instead insisting that he labelled Saiss a "smelly-breathed prick" after being provoked, although he has decided not to contest the sanctions.

"As we've already said in our statement, we support him because for me it was a very confused situation," said Benitez when asked about the issue at his pre-match press conference on Friday. "The main thing is he knows that he has to be careful in the future and just concentrate on his football. We know we will not have him for the next five games and that's it.

"Strange things happen on the pitch and everyone is referring to this issue but we continue to support him - we don't support him in the way [of the alleged language] but that he was making a mistake. We know that maybe he made a mistake but what people say he said, maybe he didn't say, so it is very confused. What we have to do is move on and start thinking about the future.

"We know what they said, we know what we said and how things have come out, but it is still very confused. I have been playing football all my life, so to be there on the pitch with a lot of players, someone was hearing one thing, someone else something else, others, nothing at all."

Prior to the ban, Shelvey had been an ever-present for the Championship league leaders this season.