Spanish soccer club prints slurs on jerseys to combat racial abuse
In an effort to take a stand against the abuse they receive from opposing teams while playing, Spanish soccer team Alma de Africa, replaced their names on the back of their jerseys with racial slurs for the first game of the season. Alma de Africa is made up of about a dozen players from foreign countries, as well as five Spanish players. The names on the shirts included variations of the n-word, monkey or ape, slave, and illegal immigrants.
A Spanish soccer team printed racial slurs on the back of their jerseys Sunday in an effort to take a stand against the abuse they receive while they play.
Alma de Africa plays in the Tercera Andaluza division and is made up of about a dozen players from foreign countries, as well as five Spanish players, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais. The team put several derogatory words on the back of their jerseys instead of their names for the first game of the season.
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The names on the shirt included variations of the n-word, monkey or ape, slave, and illegal immigrants.
The Spanish club wore derogatory words on their jersey backs to combat racism. (Alma de Africa)
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“I played with the word ‘Monkey’ on my back. We did it to tell everyone that we are not criminals. We are people and we are not bothering anybody. We still hear these insults and it hurts us, as well as the professional players,” Eric Joseu Amang, who is from Cameroon, said.
He added: “We want to be respected. We are in the 21st century and I don’t understand how they can still say these insults. We are fed up with being disrespected.”
The team members said that most of the racial abuse comes from opposing teams.
“Let’s see if together we can end this problem. It’s true that the trend is going down but it keeps happening and we wanted to draw people’s attention to it,” Alegandro Benitez, the club’s president, said.
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Alma de Africa finished last in their league last season.