Croatian club HNK Rijeka have strenuously denied any of their players racially abused Manchester City’s Seko Fofana in a friendly.

City’s elite development squad coach Patrick Vieira took his team off the pitch when the 19-year-old French midfielder made the allegations after being sent off just before half-time.

Press Association Sport understands the move was supported by City officials and Vieira has received the backing of anti-discrimination network FARE.

However, Rijeka have issued a statement in which they dismiss the allegations.

“Rijeka clearly and unequivocally rejects any possibility that the players at the match against Manchester City participated in assaulting the rival players on racial, religious or ethnic grounds,” said a statement on the club’s website.

“We want to point out the fact that we mentioned at the game we had six players from the Nigeria squad, players who live and train together with our other players and who have never experienced any discomfort by team-mates.

“We also want to point out that Rijeka, in co-operation with FARE, supports a campaign against racism and strongly condemns any incident of its kind.

“Because of this, we are surprised by the harsh and baseless accusations of which we are accused and that we completely reject.”

Ranko Buketa, who was in charge of Rijeka’s team on Tuesday, accused City of trying to divert attention away from Fofana’s actions which led to his red card.

“It looks like a move which is trying to hide a very ugly foul by the City player that resulted in exclusion, followed by a hasty and illogical decision of the coaching staff to withdraw the team from the field,” he told the club website.