‘I just said there’s no proof’: Footballer claims he was punished for saying player in race row should have been presumed innocent

An ex-international footballer has complained that he was sanctioned by his former club for suggesting that Ondrej Kudela, who was banned for ten games for racially abusing an opponent, should not have been presumed guilty.

Veteran goalkeeper Bobby Zlamal was given a small fine by Scottish club Hearts and told to apologize after using an interview to defend Kudela, the Sparta Prague defender at the center of a scandal when Slavia Prague traveled to Glasgow to face Rangers earlier this year.

Glen Kamara, Rangers' Finland international, reacted furiously after Kudela said something in his ear, and the center-back was subsequently banned for ten UEFA matches amid sporting and political uproar.

Having retired at the end of last season, Zlamal has now taken a new swipe at Rangers, insisting that they were "exaggerating" about the incident and claiming that their approach has only stirred up ill feeling.

"I did not apologize – I had nothing to do," the nomad of 16 clubs during his well-traveled career told Idnes.

"I stand behind it. I didn't say anything wrong. If someone calls me a racist, it offends me. I don't even want to talk about it.

"I don't think I stood up for Ondrej. I just said, 'There's no proof.' Allegations against allegations. I said the presumption of innocence should be honored.

"You can't convict someone without evidence. It happens in some places in the Middle East, but not in the western world. "

Kudela's appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport was rejected and campaigns against racism in sport are ongoing, but Zlamal says that Rangers are dealing with "their problem" rather than an issue that is prevalent in the Czech Republic.

"They are trying to compensate for the way they treated immigrants years ago," he argued. "But they do it the wrong way. Now there is total hyper-correctness – everyone is afraid to say their opinion.

"Here [in the Czech Republic], society still seems to be healthy. I know Ondrej Kudela. There are a lot of nationalities in Slavia. Let's look at it from a broader point of view.

"I talked to darker-skinned friends to tell me how they perceive racism. I read what is happening in the Czech Republic and what is happening there, but it is best to ask.

"They told me that they were really fighting racism, especially covert racism. [One] told me: 'Look, my mom has been working for ten years and she is not promoted; an Englishman comes and is promoted in a year.'

"The Scots are just making war. Kamara's lawyer creates more racism. I will quote Morgan Freeman: racism will disappear when it is no longer talked about.

"They do the exact opposite. They want to eradicate it, but they do it the wrong way."

There were reports of booing when Rangers visited Sparta Prague for a Europa League match in September that only children were allowed to attend – a notion Zlamal dismissed.

"I have a child and he doesn't know what [racism] is," said the towering 35-year-old.

"My view is that racism will disappear. The younger generation doesn't know about it at all.

"Now my parents are cursing at Scotland again, [hostility] is accumulating unnecessarily and there is hatred.

"Nothing good will ever come from hatred. It bothers me that Scotland considers us racists."