A Swedish soccer club has fired all the players on its top team following complaints that players hurled homophobic remarks at members of an opposing team.
According to The Local, the incident took place during a Division Seven match played earlier this month between Sörskogens IF and the Stockholm Snipers, a club which makes an effort to welcome LGBT players.
“We distance ourselves from all insults. Clearly it’s damaging for the club to have players who don’t follow the rules,” Ketil Torp, chair of the Sörskogens IF football club, told Sveriges Radio (SR).
During the match, players from Sörskogens were heard saying, “You suck cock for 50 kronor”, “All of you have HIV”, and “We’re probably going to get infected”, among several other homophobic remarks, the local Mitt i Huddinge newspaper reported.
“It was a little unpleasant when we went into the dressing room after the game. One of our players was also threatened after things got a little heated on the pitch,” Snipers coach Christoffer Smitz told SR.
Following the incident, Sörskogens IF was fined 5,000 kronor ($755) by the Stockholm Football Association, which also demanded that top club officials attend a training course.
The sanction marked the first time the Stockholm Football Association had penalized a club for homophobic behavior during a match, according to SR.
However, the club management went one step further this week, deciding to sack all the players on its top team.
“We had no choice but to suspend the entire team. That kind of language isn’t appropriate for football or anywhere else,” club chairman Torp told Mitt i Huddinge.
Torp said the decision had received much positive comment stating on the club’s Web site, “We have received a lot of publicity in the media the last few days after the decision on suspension of the men’s team. The response has been overwhelmingly positive via email, SMS, website and other social media.”
