Slavia Prague defender Ondrej Kudela has withdrawn his appeal against a 10-match UEFA ban for "racist behaviour" towards Rangers' Glen Kamara and apologised to the Finnish midfielder.

Kudela and Slavia strenuously denied the initial accusations levelled by Kamara in March 2021, with the Czech Republic international alleged to have made a racist comment while covering his mouth towards the end of an ill-tempered Europa League round-of-16 second leg that Rangers lost 2-0, eliminating them from the competition.

UEFA initially gave Kudela a one-match ban for "insulting players or others present at the match", but following a full investigation that was increased to 10 games in April.

Slavia accused Kamara of attacking Kudela after the game, and the Rangers man was given a three-match suspension "for assaulting another player".

Czech government official Vratislav Mynar, head of the office of the country's president, responded in an open letter to UEFA at the time, calling its decision "the pinnacle of hypocrisy".

But 11 months on, Kudela has withdrawn his appeal and said he is "so sorry" for approaching Kamara at all.

A statement from his legal counsel, which was posted on Slavia's website, read: "In agreement with the client, we will file a withdrawal today against UEFA's disciplinary decision on international sports arbitration before the Swiss Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. We respect the client's wishes to end the matter."

Kudela added: "I realise that it was a mistake to go to Glen Kamara at all and tell him anything. There were emotions in the match and unfortunately I can't take it back now. I'm so sorry.

"I am glad that this line of the story is over. The whole case has been going on for a long time, but I just want to focus on football.

"I would like to close it definitively, so after a long deliberation and agreement with the club, I told my lawyers to stop the ongoing international sports arbitration."

It was also confirmed that Scottish law enforcement will not be taking any further action against Kudela for the incident.