Player walks off pitch in Peru over racist abuse from fans

[Judi Lynn]

Player walks off pitch in Peru over racist abuse from fans

• ‘I couldn’t take it anymore,’ says Juan Aurich striker, Luis Tejada
• Second incident involving Tejada in five months

Reuters
Monday 2 March 2015 08.42 EST

A Panamanian player has criticised Peru’s football authorities for doing nothing to stop racism in the country after he walked off the pitch during a top-flight game following abuse which he said was going unpunished.

The Juan Aurich striker, Luis Tejada, booted the ball into the stands and left the field after 70 minutes of Sunday’s game at Cienciano. “I couldn’t take it anymore and I only walked off after I kicked the ball away in protest and at the impotence I felt when I could see that no one was doing anything,” he said.

Tejada was booked for kicking the ball away while some Cienciano players appealed to their own fans for restraint. Tejada refused to return and Cienciano won 2-0.

“I leave this in the hands of the authorities so they can do something to end this racism,” Tejada wrote on his website. “We’re not advancing and it’s the same thing over and over. For how long?”

More:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/mar/02/player-walks-off-peru-racist-abuse-fans

(They treat native Peruvian people very poorly, as well.)

[MADem]

1. It's a problem and a failing in many parts of that region, despite no small degree of diversity.

[longship]

2. He should have handled it like they do in Australia.

Adam Goodes, star of the Sydney Swans football club (and an indigenous Australian) was called an "ape" from the stands.

Look what happened... What he did, and the result.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/26/adam-goodes-racism_n_3339704.html

Note: Australian rules football is an entirely different sport than anything US or many countries call football. They apparently do not take lightly racial slurs from the stands.

Video (somewhat backwards, depicts the outcome -- they show the racist being escorted out of the stadium before the clip of Adam Goodes calling her out. So it is a bit confusing.):

And here is Goodes in an advert about racism in sports:

BTW, I am a huge AFL fan, as well as an Adam Goodes fan. He is a very class act, as was his handling of this incident. The fan apologized to him personally. He thanked her for that.

That is how you handle these things, with firm rules, and forgiveness. Therein education happens.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Wonderful way to deal with this. It was so good, had to watch it again.

The man handled his response perfectly.

I was glad to see people in the audience applauding when the racist kid was led away from her seat.

Thank you, so much.

Also, glad to learn about this player. He IS a player to admire.