Football is again dealing with another racist incident and for the third time this season it's occurred in Australia's A-League competition. A Melbourne Victory fan has had their membership canceled after racially attacking Wanderers player Tarek Elrich on social media.
The Western Sydney Wanderers have been left pondering more than just their loss to the Melbourne Victory in the A-League on Saturday night.
After the match, former Socceroo midfielder Tarek Elrich received a racist message on social media from a Victory fan, criticising his on-field performance.
The post referred to him as a “Scummy Dog”, and told him go back to "where you came from Ugly Muslim”.
The footballer responded, tweeting, call me whatever "but keep my religion out of this”.
By Monday, Western Sydney Wanderers Head Coach Markus Babbel had stepped up to support Elrich's decision to publicly call out the racism.
The social media message is the third racist incident involving A-league players since November.
On Boxing Day, Adelaide United fans allegedly hurled racial slurs at Dutch import Roly Bonavacia during the match against Western Sydney Wanderers.
Wanderers Midfielder Alex Baumjohann says something needs to be done to stop similar incidents occurring in future games.
“Yeah I think that it’s not acceptable, something like this already happened against Adelaide with Roly and now with Tarek, I think we have to do something against this. I think the clubs are doing the right thing and made this public, so hopefully it will not happen again.”
Another incident in November, saw Brisbane Roar goalkeeper, Jamie Young subjected to racial abuse, this time from a Wanderer’s fan in Mudgee.
Both Brisbane and Western Sydney strongly condemned the incident.
Former Socceroo Craig Foster has renewed calls for racial slurs at A-League games to be called out.
“Fans and anyone within the stadiums, it's very clear, if you vilify, certainly any of the players, and we'd like to think any racial vilification of anyone else in the stadium or fans or anyone else, that you will be identified, that you’ll be dealt with, that you’ll be banned and that football is saying to both you and to every Australian, that we don’t accept this.”
Melbourne Victory has released a statement condemning the action of the person involved.
The fan, who posted the comments, has been identified and stripped of their membership.
