Concacaf investigating alleged hate speech incident in LAFC-Colorado

New York Times

26-02-2025

There was a scene during Tuesday night's Concacaf Champions Cup encounter between LAFC and the Colorado Rapids that felt eerily familiar, one soccer fans across the world have unfortunately become accustomed to witnessing in recent years.
As the match entered its final minutes, Colorado defender Chidozie Awaziem began pleading with referee Pierre-Luc Lauziere. Play was stopped. Awaziem, along with match officials, spoke with both managers, and with captains from both teams. After a delay of several minutes, it seemed clear enough what was going on.
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Awaziem's interactions closely mirrored MLS's official protocol for incidents of hate speech, which dictate the actions of its match officials during such moments. Eventually, game action resumed. Soon after, when the final whistle blew, Awaziem — who is Nigerian — once again began protesting, this time directly to LAFC defender Sergi Palencia, who hails from Spain.
Fears of a potential incident of hate speech were confirmed after the match by Rapids head coach Chris Armas.
'There was an incident that happened on the field,' Armas said. 'Our player, Chidoze Awaziem, was pretty clear and upset at a derogatory term that he (Palencia) said. He (Awaziem) was clear about what was said. Our club, myself, we're fully behind our player to support him with an investigation into what exactly what went down. He was pretty upset.'
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LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo also confirmed the incident.
'One of Colorado's players had heard something, a word, that bothered him,' Cherundolo told the media in attendance. 'He thought that it was directed towards him. I don't know what directly what was said. I was on the sideline. I'm sure the referees will write a report and then we'll figure it out from there. If players hear something and they can't play, we want to support the players. We'll let the referees and Concacaf figure that out.'
Concacaf has started an investigation to the incident and issued the following statement The Athletic on Wednesday afternoon:
'Concacaf has initiated an investigation into a reported incident between players Chidozie Awaziem of Colorado Rapids and Sergi Palencia of Los Angeles FC during last night's Concacaf Champions Cup match. The investigation will involve a thorough review of the match officials' reports, available match footage, and the respective positions of both clubs.'
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What Palencia is alleged to have said is not clear, and neither head coach was asked about it after the match. LAFC, the Colorado Rapids and MLS did not respond to The Athletic's request for comment on Wednesday. LAFC won the match, 1-0, and advanced to a round-of-16 date with the Columbus Crew on the away-goals tiebreaker following a 2-2 aggregate draw.
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MLS, like many other leagues across the world, has a history of incidents of racist hate speech. In 2023, D.C. United forward Taxi Fountas was forced out of MLS after repeated allegations of racial abuse, the most recent of which involved his own teammate. Earlier that year, New York Red Bulls player Dante Vanzeir was suspended for six games and fined by the league for using a racial slur during a game against the San Jose Earthquakes. In 2021, Portland Timbers player Diego Chará accused a Minnesota United player of using a slur, though that allegation could not be conclusively proven.
The league has also grappled with the use of homophobic language. Cucho Hernández, Sebastian Lletget and Santiago Sosa have all been suspended in recent years for violations of the league's policy against discriminatory language.