Matches Forfeited in Protest (San Diego Loyal)

[SlotBadger]

Within a week, Landon Donovan‘s San Diego Loyal team has chosen to forfeit two matches due to racist and homophobic comments from opposition players.

Donovan never made an impression with me as a player but this is an almost meteoric breakthrough in dealing with the many bigoted idiots within the game. Love him for supporting his players’ choice in taking a stand.

The other coach, Rick Schantz, comes across like a neanderthal in this exchange, given the player receiving homophobic abuse is openly gay:



Total respect for Donovan:

 

[Col_M]

Great example. The other coach trying to brush it under the carpet and LD having non of it. And they were 3-1 up.

The refs are probably too busy looking for non existing handballs in the penalty area.

 

[brendanb50]

I saw all this yesterday - Definitely a strong example. You wouldn't tolerate racist abuse or homophobic terms in any other workplace, let alone in a public domain.

These examples will hopefully set a standard for what should be expected in these instances. Change won't happen overnight but through acts like this they will change.

 

[Tucker]

Not a good look for the opposition coach (who is also too dumb to wear his mask properly) “don’t make a scene.”

Kind of felt for the ref who didn’t look like he’d seen or heard what happened.

 

[taidgh]

I know this referee, and have done 3-4 games with him. He's a good guy, a little bit of a straight-laced, by-the-book kind of ref, but knows the laws inside out. He's maybe not the best at communicating.. obviously. That said, he is only 22-23. I'm sure this will be a learning opportunity for him.

As for Donovan, think his team did the right thing here. This stuff is all too prevalent and needs to be eradicated.

 

[Ionman34]

Massive props to Donovan and his entire team.
We can hope that this spurs others on to do the same. Sadly, I doubt very much we’d ever see this in our own country.

 

[nailsy]

Brilliant response from Donovan and his team. I'm not going to blame the ref as this is on the player who started throwing abuse.

This will probably lead to more teams walking off when they receive abuse on the field. I wonder how long it will be before players start wearing mics so they can record any abuse that they receive, or so that they can prove their innocence.

 

[wirE]

Rick Schantz should be fired. Ignorant asshole.