Liverpool U19s walk off pitch after alleged racist abuse during ...

Liverpool Under-18s’ match against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday was abandoned after one of their players was subject to alleged racist abuse.

The young Reds were playing Frankfurt in Schwabish Hall in Germany as part of the Bundesliga Cup when the incident happened.

According to German outlet Bild, a Frankfurt player allegedly used a racist term when aiming at insult at an opponent, after which Liverpool’s team walked off the pitch and refused to continue.

As the incident happened in the final few minutes of the game, it was first assumed that the match had ended 1-1, but it was later announced that the match had officially been abandoned, giving Frankfurt a 3-0 win by default.

Liverpool later released a statement on the matter where they revealed that a similar incident had also occurred on Friday when their side played Hoffenheim:

‘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 Schwabisch Hall in Germany on Friday.

‘The player immediately alerted the match official, his team-mates, 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 today. Again, the player alerted his team-mates 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 team-mates 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.’

Following the match, Frankfurt sporting director Timmo Hardung spoke to the media and claimed the accused player had been misheard and that no racist language had been used.

He said that his player had actually said the word ‘digga’, a German slang term for ‘bro’ or ‘dude’.

‘Our entire NLZ [Youth Performance Centre] is like Eintracht Frankfurt, multicultural and we have clear values ​​that we live by and constantly demand,’ Hardung said.

‘Racism has no place here, but we still take such an accusation seriously.

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‘After consultation, our player confirmed that he had used the word ‘digga’, which is common in youth slang, in the course of a normal game. We have no doubt that this statement is correct.

‘We can rule out racism, it is a linguistic issue and we therefore hope that we have also cleared up the misunderstanding with the players concerned and those responsible at Liverpool FC.’

It is reported that Hoffenheim had used the same explanation after the first incident after which all teams at the tournament were informed not to use the word ‘digga’ to avoid any future confusion or insult.

It comes at a time when the issue of racism in football is very much in the spotlight after Chelsea star Enzo Fernandez filmed himself and teammates singing a racist and transphobic chant after Argentina’s Copa America victory.

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