Germany ends Olympic warmup match early due to alleged racial abuse

Germany’s Olympic soccer team left the field toward the end of a warmup match with Honduras following racial abuse allegations against the opposing team.

The German soccer federation announced on Twitter that the team walked off as the game was tied 1-1 after German defender Jordan Torunarigha, who is Black, was “racially insulted.”

Das Spiel musste fünf Minuten vor Ende beim Stand von 1:1 abgebrochen werden. Nachdem unser Spieler Jordan Torunarigha rassistisch beleidigt wurde, hat die deutsche Mannschaft gemeinsam das Feld verlassen. #WirfuerD #GERHON

— Team Deutschland | Fußball (@DFB_Junioren) July 17, 2021

The team left the game in the 87th minute but decided it wouldn’t push the issue further after Honduras came over to the bench to apologize, Germany captain Maximilian Arnold said, The Associated Press reported.

“We made a correct statement, we made the right decisions and acted correctly. It was also Jordan’s wish. He said that we should leave it at that,” Arnold said.

“After the situation calmed down a bit, the whole Honduras team came over to us on the bench and apologized,” Germany coach Stefan Kuntz said. “That was the end of the matter for us.”

“If one of our players is racially abused, it’s not an option for us to keep playing,” Kuntz added.

Hertha Berlin, the club team Torunarigha plays for, applauded the decision, saying it was “the only correction decision.”

Das ist die einzig richtige Entscheidung!#saynotoracism #teamjordan #GemeinsamHertha #HaHoHe https://t.co/9i9dFV2Gvn

— Hertha BSC (@HerthaBSC) July 17, 2021

“It was hard to get him in, he was terribly upset because he said he was repeatedly racially abused,” Kuntz said. “For us it’s clear, this violates our values, we cannot tolerate it. We’ll take our player completely under our protection.”

The Honduran soccer federation claims the incident was a “misunderstanding,” according to the AP.

It “occurred due to a misunderstanding on the field of play,” the federation tweeted.

The situation came after three Black English players faced racial attacks online following the team’s loss in the Euro 2020 final.