{"id":11133,"date":"2017-05-05T21:12:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-05T21:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2017\/05\/05\/soccer-player-protests-racial-taunts-and-the-ref-punishes-him\/"},"modified":"2017-05-05T21:12:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-05T21:12:00","slug":"soccer-player-protests-racial-taunts-and-the-ref-punishes-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/soccer-player-protests-racial-taunts-and-the-ref-punishes-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer Player Protests Racial Taunts \u2014 And The Ref Punishes Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Vicky Hallett<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n After Sulley Muntari (right) heard racial slurs from fans during a match in Sardinia, Italy, on April 30, he protested \u2014 and got a yellow card from the referee. A supporter holds the card aloft.<\/p>\n

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Enrico Locci\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Enrico Locci\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Soccer star Sulley Muntari finally got fed up. He’s a midfielder from Ghana who plays for the Italian team Pescara. Last Sunday in a match against Cagliari in Sardinia, a bunch of spectators taunted him with racist chants. He reportedly shouted, “This is my color”<\/a> and went to the referee to ask that the game be halted. Instead, he got a yellow card.<\/p>\n

The card means he was booked for dissent, a punishment doled out to players who touch or verbally abuse officials.<\/p>\n

Muntari then walked off the field to protest, earning him a one-match suspension, which was just overturned Friday night.<\/p>\n

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As for the racist fans? The disciplinary committee decided that because there were “only 10” people involved, no further action was required. (That’s a contrast to what happened Monday night at a Boston Red Sox game, where several fans were ejected for racially taunting Baltimore Orioles player Adam Jones.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The Italian incident has provoked an international outcry. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called Muntari “an inspiration.”<\/p>\n

And everybody’s talking about the incident in Ghana, where the 32-year-old Muntari was born and launched his soccer career, says sports radio host Daniel Kwaku Yeboah, who’s also managing editor of Ghana Sports Online<\/a>. Many people in Ghana think the referee was out of line in punishing Muntari, but others think, “there’s no use” in hoping for change, says Yeboah, who can recite a long list of African soccer players who have been subjected to racist slurs in Italy and elsewhere in Europe.<\/p>\n