Investigation underway into alleged racial abuse in Dunedin club football

Wanaka Footballer Daniel Lourenco was playing against Roselyn Wakari in the Southern Football League on June 26 when a spectator allegedly racially abused him.
Photo: supplied

An investigation has been launched by Southern Football after a Wanaka footballer was allegedly racially abused in match against Roselyn Wakari in Dunedin.

Daniel Lourenco was playing for Wanaka when a spectator allegedly directed a racial slur at the 21-year-old Brazilian, midway through the first half in the match at Ellis Park in Dunedin.

Too focussed on his football, Lourenco did not hear the slur, but his teammates did and confronted the crowd.

However, this only resulted in a yellow card to one of them.

“When the game finished, all my team went to talk to the referee but I don’t even think he knew about it and no one would say who exactly had made the racist comments,” said Lourenco.

Video of the incident has been sent to New Zealand football for review.

It comes just two weeks after the All Whites abandoned their match against Qatar after on of the opposition made an alleged racial slur towards defender Michael Boxall.

“I’m the only Brazilian on my team, when I arrived they always supported me even though I couldn’t speak English very well. I feel glad that they stood up for me when it all happened.”

Southern Football CEO Dougal McGowan said they have gathered reports from those at the game.

“We are working through that process now and trying to make sure because there’s a lot of information to work through, there’s videos and all that sort of stuff. So we’ve got a wee bit of work to do.”

Daniel’s teammates confronted the crowd but this only resulted in a yellow card to one of them.
Photo: supplied

McGowan said it was disappointing to hear of the incident.

“We have been we’ve been talking about sideline and onfield behavior for a long period of time. We are quite concerned about a number of different things that are happening. It’s not just our sport, we’re talking with other groups and and they’re finding the same things and we’re seeing it in general society as well,” he said.

He said Southern Football wants to ensure people are able to participate freely without having “this sort of stuff going on.”

Originally from Sao Paulo, Lourenco came to New Zealand with his family nine months ago.

“I never thought that would ever happen to me on the field. I would never ever think that I would have to go through that.”

“I really don’t want to have to go through that again. It’s an awful thing but I believe it will pass. I’ve been trying to focus on my football and on what I like about football. I know I’m unfortunately not the only one that goes through it, racism should never be OK.”

The two sides are set to meet again in the Chatham Cup this weekend.

Daniel’s mother Nivia Lourenco said her son was doing what he loves most and she’s deeply upset by what has happened.

“I’ve never experienced anything even close to what happened to my son.”

“I was under the impression that here in New Zealand we had respect between people and their communities, and how different people are. But now, after what happened to my son, I don’t know anymore. How can people be mean, be cruel, to people, just because they have a different skin colour than theirs?”

Daniel’s mother Nivia Lourencom was heartbroken after her son was racially abused.
Photo: supplied

“If you are a mother, it doesn’t matter how old your children are, when someone hurts them, I think there’s nothing worse to a mother.”

“We should not tolerate racism anywhere and anytime. Skin colour doesn’t mean anything; people should always respect one another.”

Meanwhile the Wellington Phoenix have stood a player from their resereve team down indefinitely after he admitted using homophobic language on the field in a match against Petone in the Central League competition.

Fin Conchie has apologised for the comments and will face disciplinary action from Capital Football.

-RNZ