INTERCOUNTY DUAL STAR Lee Chin has called on GAA chiefs to increase the penalties for racial abuse at games.
Though Wexford’s county delegates will vote on a motion proposing racial abuse become a red-card offence, Chin has urged officials to go further.
The Sarsfields man last night suggested suspensions — like those dished out by the FAI — should be imposed.
Chin said racist abuse on the pitch is ‘an on-going issue’. Two players from Duffry Rovers were banned for two months in June after being found guilty of racially abusing Chin.
“I was very shocked in that game, when the two guys said what they said to me, that he was only given a yellow card for that abuse,” the player said on Off The Ball last night.
“I know they’ve got an eight-week ban, but I’ve been chatting with one of my soccer managers in Wexford. One of his underage players, he was only a youth or something, was abused two years ago and the guy that abused him… got a six-month ban… and he got red card in that game too.
“I was comparing how the FAI deal with things with the GAA. I thought the players got off very lightly with a yellow card and an eight-week ban.
“The GAA should bring in more than an eight-week ban,” he added.
Chin admits that the problem is one he’s faced as he’s progressed through the ranks in Wexford.
“It’s something I’ve faced throughout the years, as far back as I can remember,” he told Eoin McDevitt. “Coming up through underage stages of my career, the other underage players who might have said those things I know we were that young they probably didn’t understand what they were calling me. I was the same, I was only that age too. I didn’t really understand what they were calling me, it was just a word and maybe for them too.
“It was just something I had to deal with when I was younger. But it gets a bit more personal now when other adults are saying to you at this stage of your life. It has happened on and off the pitch.
“It’ll pop up every now and again. There’s a lot of people who have respect for player but there are some that will come out and say what they want to say and what they think of you. It’s not something that will happen every day but it’s an ongoing thing.”
