Brazilian Midfielder Left In Tears After Racial Abuse In Belgrade Derby
Feb 21, 2017 at 7:02 PM
Football is not just a sport. It is a lifestyle for many and has been for more than a century now.
So there is no place whatsoever for any kind of abuse or disrespect towards one and other in the world of football.
But often in the past, there have been a number of cases where the fans and the players cross their boundaries of the sport, to take it to personal lengths and abuse their opposition.
It is always sad to see such an incident happen, especially in this modern era, but the truth is, such incidents are not uncommon in the lower leagues in Europe.
In what is one of the most intense derbys in the world football, the Belgrade Derby, has often fallen prey to many such antics and this season has been no different.
After the first leg between the clubs ended in a brawl, Partizan Belgrade took the short trip to Rad Beograd for a high-intensity clash earlier this week.
The Serbian capital was all set for this clash which provided some great entertainment.
The football in that country has always been marred with controversy and depraved behavior from fans and the players and this week, the visitors had to deal with racial abuse from the hosts on the night.
Racism is a facet that has no place whatsoever in the current community of the sport yet mindless fans of the sport still insist on taking this approach to hit the heart of their opponents.
And Partizan’s Everton Luiz, learned about it the hard way.
The Brazilian star broke into tears after the game after he was racially abused all evening by the Beograd fans in the Serbian capital.
The Rad Beograd fans unfurled a racist banner aimed at Luiz, while abusing him with monkey noises throughout the game.
As if that was not enough, the Beograd players also joined in, and reportedly abused the player racially throughout the game, to make him uncomfortable.
Speaking to the media after the game, Luiz revealed that he was suffering from personal abuse from the start of the game and that it was stupid of the players to join in.
He also revealed that he felt like he was being attacked.
“I’ve been suffering racist abuse during the entire 90 minutes and also was upset by the home players, who supported that. They were all attacking me,” he said in an interview after the game.
Here is the full video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls2RUveamJc
Let’s hope that we the UEFA comes up with rules that can put an end to this mindless discrimination.