Czech hockey club apologizes to Canadian player for fans' racism

The management of the Chomutov Pirates Czech Extraliga hockey team (Piráti Chomutov) has publicly apologized to Wayne Simmonds, a forward for the Liberec hockey team, for the racist insults aimed at him by several Pirates fans during yesterday’s game. Simmonds, a Black Canadian, became the target of the insults toward the end of the game, which Chomutov won 3:2 in overtime.

Simmonds is also a rising star for Philadelphia. The US-based National Hockey League has recognized his speed and strong playing. Last season he was featured in power plays alongside Jaromír Jágr.

The 24-year-old winger has played 322 games in the best league in the world, scoring 142 points. After ruling out the possibility of international scheduling conflicts, he joined the Liberec team and last week became the first black hockey player to participate in the Czech Republic’s most important hockey competition.

While last Tuesday’s game between Liberec and Severočechy at Sparta stadium took place without any incidents, some fans showed just how pathetic they can be at Sunday’s game in Chomutov. The moment Simmonds was involved in a scuffle, the hard-core Chomutov fans began shouting racist insults and "opice" ("monkey") at him.

Many other fans in the arena condemned the group’s actions by whistling them down, but even so Simmonds found himself in an unpleasant situation which does not usually arise when he plays in his home country.

The Chomutov club had to apologize for the behavior of some of its fans. The club management later sharply condemned the embarrassing behavior of some fans on its website and threatened to ban them from entering the stadium in the future.

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"We are disgusted by the behavior of a small group of spectators who have seriously harmed the good reputation of our entire club. We would like to deeply apologize to player Simmonds and the entire Liberec team," Chomutov’s marketing director David Dinda posted on the official website of the team.

"It was embarrassing, pathetic, and small. I demand these people stop coming to Chomutov hockey. We are not interested in that kind of fan and we will do everything we can to restrict entry to the stadium for the people who started that behavior," wrote general manager Jaroslav Veverka.