A football team owned by FIFA Streamer Edwin Castro has withdrawn from a first football tournament after a member of the squad allegedly used a racial slur against an opposing player in a game.
Dallas United played West Ham United FC in Cary, North Carolina on June 1 in the inaugural The Soccer Tournament (or TST), a 7-on-7 tournament with a $1 million prize pool for the winning team. The Dallas team, composed of “mostly amateur players from the Dallas area” accordingly ESPN
Video clips on social media show West Ham players gathered around the match referee, with centre-back and former English Premier League player Anton Ferdinand taking center stage. A clip appears to show Ferdinand telling the referee: ‘I’m here now to set a precedent’ before the entire squad decides to leave the pitch. Although it’s unclear what was allegedly said, there’s social media and websites like The Daily Mail suggest the N-word was hurled at Ferdinand by a Dallas United player.
The official TST Twitter account later posted an update that said: “[conducted] an investigation into the final moments of the game between West Ham United and Dallas United” and “concluded that Dallas United breached TST’s code of conduct.”
“We have spoken to the leadership of both clubs and we all agree that the best way forward is for Dallas United to withdraw from the competition,” the statement said.
Although Castro’s Dallas squad initially shared a tweet saying they had launched their own internal investigation into what happened during the game and was “fully cooperating” with TST’s investigations, a later tweet seemed to indicate that the squad’s stance is that the “charge” against them is false. “Given the shadow cast by an opposing player’s allegations during today’s game, the Dallas United players have unanimously decided to withdraw from the rest of the competition,” read a tweet posted just hours after the first . my city
Castro has 3.5 million followers on his Twitch account and over 1.5 million on Twitter. He is best known for his FIFA streams. In a video posted to Dallas United’s Twitter account on March 7, Castro likened the team’s ownership to “[playing] FIFA in real life.”
As reported by ABC 11, Ferdinand, North Carolina’s offshoot of the news organization, spoke to reporters after West Ham’s last game on June 2 and praised TST’s quick response to the allegations. “I have to put on record that the topic of conversation that was revealed yesterday is better than football. The way TST dealt with it so quickly, the factual approach, many people around the world, organizations around the world can take note of,” he said.
West Ham and their opponents reportedly knelt in solidarity ahead of Friday’s game as Ferdinand’s team considered not going ahead with the tournament following the racially motivated incident. “When someone of white ethnicity hears someone of my ethnicity speaking [such racism], it’s almost like it’s a broken record, we’ve heard it before. But when you hear it from someone who looks like you, you take notice. So I think everyone needs to come together to fight as a collective. And if we do that, football can be the catalyst for change in society. But society must want to change with it,” said Ferdinand during the press conference.
As reported by the BBCFerdinand isn’t the only former professional footballer taking part in the tournament – Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan and Cesc Fabregas are also in attendance, and professional clubs Borussia Dortmund and Wrexham (owned by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney) also have teams representing them represent.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that Ferdinand has been confronted with racism as a black footballer. According to the BBC, a former Chelsea player, was fined and banned for four games in 2011 for racially abusing him as a Queens Park Rangers defender. Racism has no place in football, gaming or anywhere else.
