Wolves friendly ends in chaos after racism row as Podence sent off for punching opponent

Wolves winger Daniel Podence was sent off for punching an opponent as their pre-season meeting with Como descended into chaos. The 28-year-old was shown a straight red card as tempers flared after Hwang Hee-chan was allegedly subjected to racist abuse.

Matt Doherty scored the only goal of the game as Wolves came away with a narrow victory, with the match being played in Marbella. However, the occasion was marred by a series of shocking incidents which resulted in punches being thrown and players being left enraged.

A brawl was sparked in the 68th minute of the match when Podence was sent off after swinging at a Como defender. The incident was sparked by Hwang accusing an opposing player of racially abusing him, according to the Express and Star, which infuriated his Wolves team-mates.

Once the tensions had died down, both sets of players and coaches were locked in discussions with the remainder of the game in doubt. It eventually continued without further incident after Hwang confirmed that he wanted the match to be played to its conclusion.

Wolves boss Gary O'Neil offered an explanation in his post-match interview, saying: "Channy heard a racist remark which is really disappointing. I spoke to Channy about it, checked whether he wanted to take the team off or come off himself, but he was keen the team carried on and got the work they needed.

"It’s really disappointing that it happened, that we have to talk about it and that it impacted the game, not ideal and things like that shouldn’t be around. He’s really disappointed, of course, and understandably. I’m proud of the fact that he wanted to carry on and put his team first in a difficult moment for him.

"He knew it was a pre-season trip and he wanted the lads to work and get their minutes, even though he’d suffered something hugely offensive. Channy will be OK. He’ll get our full support and we’ll pick him up in the morning and make sure he’s OK. It’s a together group.

"Of course, there’s ways to handle that and we don’t want to leave ourselves short on the pitch, but it’s a together group. We’ve worked really hard this week, had a good week, had some great moments in the game, but it’s an unfortunate incident we have to deal with and have to discuss when, ideally, we’d be talking about the game."

Wolves later issued an official statement, which read: "Racism or discrimination in any form is completely unacceptable and should never be left unchallenged, and Wolves will be submitting a formal complaint to UEFA regarding the incident."