Former Serbian star sparks World Cup racism uproar during live broadcast

Serbian football analyst Rade Bogdanovic, a former Atletico Madrid and Yugoslavia striker, triggered an uproar after making racist remarks during RTS coverage of Belgium's World Cup match against Iran. The comments came while he was analyzing Belgium defender Nathan Ngoy's red card in the 66th minute for a last-man foul.

During the postgame discussion, Bogdanovic said that "black players lack the level of concentration needed to play 90 minutes." He added, "I always say this, and I am absolutely not racist, but black players do not have the concentration to last more than 60 to 80 minutes." He also claimed that, when he played, teams sometimes had to protect such players to keep them from making mistakes.

The host challenged him on air, but Bogdanovic defended his remarks and said that "most suffer from a lack of concentration." The comments drew widespread criticism on social media and in European media, yet Bogdanovic appeared the next day as a commentator on another tournament match.

After the backlash, Bogdanovic issued an apology to Reuters, saying, "I sincerely apologize for my statement about black footballers." Serbia's public broadcaster RTS also apologized, saying it was sorry, as a public broadcaster, for the remark aired on its program about people of a certain race. RTS added that Bogdanovic is not a station employee, but an outside commentator for the tournament.