German soccer team walks out of pre-Olympics match after alleged racist abuse

Germany’s Olympic soccer team walked off the pitch during a warm-up match for the upcoming Tokyo games, citing racist abuse of one of their players.

The German team was tied 1-1 with Honduras, as part of a friendly game being played Saturday in Wakayama, Japan.

Five minutes before the end of play, the German team left the field and ended the match. On Twitter, the German team said that Jordan Torunarigha, a 23-year-old defender for club team Hertha BSC, had been racially abused.

“When one of our players is racially abused, playing on is not an option,” Stefan Kuntz, the German team coach, was quoted as saying by the Twitter account.

The German team did not say who had targeted Torunarigha.

In their own subsequent tweets, the Honduras Football Federation confirmed that a German player alleged that a Honduras team member had made the insult, but that they understood the situation was due to a “misunderstanding on the pitch.”

The early end of the game will not affect the Olympic competition for either team as it was a friendly match, played in three thirds of 30 minutes rather than the traditional two halves of 45 minutes, and was designed to warm up the two teams for competitive play.

However, it comes after serious allegations of racial abuse during the recent Euro 2020, with England’s team manager calling the racist abuse of several Black players after the English team lost to Italy in the final “unforgivable.”

Several prominent figures in soccer voiced support for Torunarigha and the German team on Thursday. Hertha BSC, Torunarigha’s home club, tweeted that walking off the pitch was the “right decision,” including a hashtag for FIFA’s anti-discrimination campaign “Say no to racism.”

The German team plays its first official game of the Tokyo Olympics soccer competition on Thursday against Brazil; Honduras plays Romania the same day.

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