Former Aberdeen defender Shay Logan has spoken about being the victim of racial abuse.
In an interview with PLZ Soccer, the 36-year-old discussed being racially abused by former Celtic player Aleksandar Tonev during a match at Celtic Park in September 2014.
The Bulgarian, who was on loan from Aston Villa, received a seven-match ban.
Logan hopes the Bulgarian learned from the incident but admits episodes of racism are far too common in professional football.
Logan said: “It didn’t really affect me.
“I never held a grudge against him and I never actually came across him again.
“You could apologise but at the end of the day you have said what you said at the time and it’s like, right you’ve had your ban, let’s move on.
“But I got an apology from Celtic in terms of from the club.
“It happened and it is what it is and you can’t really do much now.
“It’ll happen again to somebody else, it’ll happen this season. I can guarantee that.
“The person who is saying it has a choice and it’s his choice to say what he wants to say at that particular time.
“The damning thing is when you are a black player or a player of ethnicity when somebody’s angry at you the first thing they think about is to say something about your colour and I just don’t get it.”
Logan joined Aberdeen from Brentford in 2014 and went on to make 294 appearances for the Dons before moving to Cove Rangers in 2021.
He continued: “It is a choice people have to deal with and hopefully Tonev learned from it and never went on and said anything else like that.
“I don’t hate him, I’ve never hated anybody. I just hope he learned from the experience because to me it was water off a duck’s back.”
Seven-game ban for ex-Celtic player
Logan said he did not want Tonev’s football career to be over as a result of the incident.
Tonev left Aston Villa in 2015 and had spells in Italy for Frosinone and Crotone before ending his career at Bulgarian side Botev Plovdiv. He retired at the age of 32.
Logan said: “What is held accountable? How many games is good enough? Is seven games enough? Ten? Three? A whole season?
“I didn’t want him to lose his career just from something he said to me because it didn’t affect me. I would feel bad if he lost his career, if the punishment was you can’t play football again, just because of a spur of the moment thing he said to me.
“What is the proper action at the end of the day? I think Tonev got banned for seven games.
“For me, like I said when I went to court, I don’t care if you ban him, fine him, sack him, it’s irrelevant to me.
“But if somebody wants to make that sort of remark then they have to be held accountable.”
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