Friday 22 March 2019 07:19, UK
A Brazilian footballer subjected to monkey chants during a recent game in Bolivia’s professional league says racism must come to an end in the Andean country.
Serginho left the field on Sunday during a Bolivian league game that his club Wilstermann lost 2-0 against Blooming.
The 34-year-old striker said Thursday that he had been discriminated from the kick-off and that he preferred to leave the field because his family was watching the game.
"Every time I had the ball, they'd shout: Monkey! Gorilla!" he said. "A precedent must be set once and for all.
"I have a family, children. My family was watching the game on the television.
"We endure certain things, but I endured up to my limit.
"This is not football. We are all equal.
"I am not different because of the colour of my skin or perhaps for being Brazilian. God created just one race: The human race."
Blooming condemned the racist chants, but it also filed a complaint demanding that Serginho be suspended for leaving the game. The club argues he taunted their fans.
Meanwhile, Wilstermann has filed a complaint against Blooming in the same court, seeking a sanction against the racist noises emitted by its fans.
Other players have denounced racist incidents in Bolivian football, but no sanction has been taken against those acts so far.
