A CORK SOCCER club official has hit out at the decision to fine his club €200 for refusing to continue playing an underage league game after one of their players was subjected to racial abuse.
The Irish Examiner has reported today that Carrigaline United received the fine after a recent U15 Cork schoolboys league game. Their management refused to allow the team take to the field for the second-half after the incident occurred. The club was subsequently fined for not continuing to play the game.
Carrigaline official Ted O’Callaghan told The Breakfast Show on Newstalk this morning that incidents like this ‘shouldn’t have to happen’.
“One of the players on our team had been racially abused by one of the opposing players on a number of occasions during the game. He’d spoken to the manager and was in quite a distressed state about it.
“The manager had approached the referee and the referee asked him did he wish to continue or did he wish to take his team from the pitch. At which point, the manager said he was going to take the team from the pitch as this was the second time it had occurred during the season to the same player. He felt he was making a stand on the issue at hand.
“The manager in question and the club official went to a disciplinary meeting. The manager stated his case and stood up for the players and the team. A week later we were handed a sanction.
“”The player was subjected to racial abuse because of the colour of his skin. We would be quite a big club and we’d have a lot of ethnic minorities who play games every weekend. It shouldn’t have to happen.
“I’m not speaking on behalf of the club. It’s something that I feel very strongly about and I want to voice it.”
