July 22 – Liverpool have demanded an urgent investigation after reporting that a member of their under-18 team faced racial abuse in two consecutive matches during a youth tournament in Germany.
Liverpool players and coaches walked off the pitch in both matches, against Hoffenheim on Friday and Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, at the Bundesliga Cup youth tournament.
The action was taken after the player informed match officials and coaches about the abuse. Both matches were subsequently abandoned, despite Eintracht’s assertion that the incident was “a linguistic issue”.
A club statement said: “Liverpool can confirm that a member of our under-18s team reported he was racially abused by an opponent while playing in the Bundesliga Cup youth tournament at Schwäbisch Hall in Germany on Friday. The player immediately alerted the match official, his teammates, and our coaching staff. Consequently, LFC’s management team decided to stop the game and leave the pitch together.
“In a further incident, the same player was the target of abuse during a fixture in the tournament [on Saturday]. Again, the player alerted his teammates and coaching staff and our management team opted to leave the pitch once more. We are proud of our player for his prompt actions in reporting the incident and the maturity of his response. He and any of his teammates affected are being supported by the academy safeguarding team. The club calls upon our opponents and the tournament organisers to conduct an urgent and thorough investigation into the incident.”
During Friday’s game, the Liverpool player claimed he was called a racial slur, prompting the team to leave the field. Hoffenheim later claimed that their player had used the German slang term ‘digga’, meaning ‘bro’. Liverpool staff then approached tournament organisers and were promised, to avoid any confusion, that all teams had been informed that the use of the word would not be tolerated.
Eintracht sporting director, Timmo Hardung, said the club took the accusation “seriously” but insisted it had been a “linguistic issue” relating to a term that is commonly used in Germany.
“Our entire youth academy is like Eintracht Frankfurt, multicultural and we have clear values that we live by and demand again and again,” Hardung said. “Racism has no place here, but we still take such an accusation seriously. We can rule out racism, it is a linguistic issue, and therefore hope to have resolved the misunderstanding among the players and Liverpool officials concerned.”
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at moc.l1731627328labto1731627328ofdlr1731627328owedi1731627328sni@g1731627328niwe.1731627328yrrah1731627328