One of our club teams had a similar issue last season, in the Socal League: they walked away from an in-season game (mid game) because of some fairly significant racial abuse coming from players on the other side. At the time, Socal League had professed a zero-tolerance policy for racism and abuse in games, and the team's coach felt that (with video evidence and such), some action would be taken, and it would not ultimately affect their record.
Spoiler alert: it did; Socal League did nothing, and their supposed "zero tolerance" policy is just CYA BS (we've had a number of racist incidents with teams in the league, all reported, the league doesn't care). Officially, their stance was that since the center referee didn't report the incident (and claimed to have not personally heard it during the game), there was nothing they were going to do. Functionally, the league doesn't appear to care at all, and the tolerance on a per-game basis entirely depends on the referee on the field (ie: we have had one ref who carded players for just swearing to themselves on the field, and others who just ignored clear racist slurs in-game which were audible even from the sidelines). The only thing which is consistent is that the league itself isn't going to take any actions with respect to any amount of racially motivated verbal abuse on the f
Honestly, before I was told anything, my assumptions were that, with club-level soccer:
- Racist insults (and most other forms of trash talk) would occur on the field
- Unless there was some physical component of harassment, it would be generally ignored
I was surprised to learn that Socal League has a stated "no tolerance" policy toward racism and racist slurs (I think any type of hate rhetoric, actually) on the field, just as I was surprised (and honestly kinda amused, in an "okay, Karen" sense) when we had the one (presumably very conservative) female ref who started issuing warnings for swearing on the field (for 12+ year old kids). On the former, though, I have to wonder about the wisdom of having that stated policy and then refusing to do anything when that conduct occurs; it seems like that would aggravate affected players and parents more than no policy at all. I know our club still has some parents who are pissed off because the league misrepresented what they would do, and that misrepresentation ultimately cost the club team standing (unfairly). In that case, lying about the policy made the problem worse.
We had a very similar situation where a player on the opposing LAFC SoCal SCV team continued to use the N-word towards players on our team. (1) It was heard by several players on our team. (2) One of our coaches who volunteered to be a sideline ref heard it, stopped the game and let the referee know, (3) a teammate of the boy that made the racist slurs said that he didn't support his teammate using those words (admitting that he also heard it). The referee did not issue a red card and the coach of the opposing team was not willing to pull that player from the game. Out of principle as well as being upset/disappointed by the lack of a response or even acknowledgement from the LAFC coach, we left the field. The referee determined it was a forfeit even though he didn't have the authority to do so per SoCal Soccer's rules, giving LAFC a 1-0 win (the game was tied 1-1 at the time it was stopped). Because of this win, LAFC instead of a Ventura Surf SC team advanced to the NPL playoffs. Yes I would be upset if I was Ventura Surf. Several very detailed emails were sent to SoCal Soccer basically asking why even have a Zero Tolerance Policy when the league is unwilling to do anything about it. Our ask wasn't that the boy be disciplined or even the team be penalized (although we found the coach's and the parents attitude to be disappointingly unapologetic or understanding). It was to ask how and what the league was going to do in terms of training and policy of both teams and referees in these situations. Several letters were directed to Michelle Chesters, the Executive Director of So Cal Soccer league and we have heard nothing. The incident happened in November 2023 and there has been zero done, not even a response. Parents of our team would of course welcome a conversation. Unfortunately this isn't an isolated incident for us as we have a very diverse team and there will be without doubt similar instances in the future. Hopefully the league's leadership stands up at some point, takes some accountability and realizes that they need to do more than just send an an annual letter stating that the league will not tolerate any form of racism.
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