NZ Football tackles homophobic abuse
New Zealand Football is investigating serious allegations of homophobic abuse, following an incident involving Wellington College senior students. reports.
NEW Zealand Football is investigating serious allegations of homophobic abuse, following an incident involving Wellington College senior students.
The alleged abuse happened during last week’s quarterfinal match between Wellington College and Auckland’s Selwyn College at the New Zealand Secondary School Futsal Championships held in Wellington.
It’s alleged between 15 and 20 Wellington College students supporting on the sideline targeted a Selwyn player, referring to him as a ‘‘bitch’’, ‘‘homo’’, ‘‘f . . . ing f . . . . t’’, and to ‘‘f ... off you gay c .. t’’.
The incident has been described by the 17-year-old Selwyn player, who was the target of the abuse, as ‘‘homophobic and sexually abusive’’.
He identified one Wellington College student in particular as the main culprit of the homophobic abuse, in a report to NZ Football (NZF).
He said he was emotionally distressed because of the supporters’ ‘‘toxic’’ conduct and reported Wellington College supporters threatened to fight him after the game when he went to retrieve a ball that had gone into the crowd.
It’s also alleged Wellington College students targeted other Selwyn players with racist and body-shaming comments.
Selwyn coach Ben Hill said ‘‘player welfare, physical and mental’’ was his biggest concern.
‘‘Seeing my player in such a terrible mental and emotional state because of the abuse he was receiving was heartbreaking,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s something I’ve never witnessed in the 10 years being involved with sport, someone being that distraught on a sports field and to know it came from homophobic abuse is even more disgusting.’’
Hill said Wellington College athletes were not involved with the abuse and should not be punished, however he is disappointed abusive supporters were able to remain at the venue.
However, NZF said in a statement, the main ‘‘offender’’ was banned from the venue for the remainder of the tournament.
It said requests were made to Wellington College to ‘‘increase the supervision of their supporters, which they did for their final two matches of the competition where senior staff members of the school were present at the venue to manage any spectators’’.
NZF confirmed it has received incident reports from Hill, the Selwyn player, a Wellington College representative, and the referee. Those reports have been seen by Sunday News.
Referee Jamie Cross reported he spoke to the supporters during the game and said it was OK to ‘‘heckle’’ the opposition, but said supporters would be removed if the referees heard ‘‘any comments that are racist, homophobic or anything else deemed to be inappropriate’’.
‘‘Were comments made to the Selwyn [player], in my opinion, absolutely, given his state of mind and how upset he was both at halftime and even more so when we spoke to him after the match.
‘Seeing my player in such a terrible mental and emotional state because of the abuse he was receiving was heartbreaking . . . and to know it came from homophobic abuse is even more disgusting.’ SELWYN COACH BEN HILL
‘‘Did we hear any comments, unfortunately not.’’
Wellington College’s Stuart Beresford reported that he did not hear any abusive comments but ‘‘senior’’ students were ‘‘boisterous’’ at times.
NZF said Wellington College ‘‘was warned that any further incident would risk their participation in the tournament and future New Zealand Football competitions’’.
‘‘New Zealand Football worked with both schools at the event and have been continuing to do so since the incident occurred.
‘‘New Zealand Football has a zero-tolerance policy to incidences of this nature. Football and futsal should be a safe environment for all participants.’’
The Star-Times was told Wellington College principal Gregor Fountain was too busy to undertake an interview, but a college spokesperson said ‘‘one student has not attended the college since the incident’’.
‘‘The school is working with this student and his parents to determine next steps.’’
The school will participate in a ‘‘restorative meeting’’ early next term, involving Fountain and the college’s head prefect, who we understand was not involved with the incident.
They will meet with the Selwyn player and other Selwyn representatives ‘‘to apologise to the student and the school for the incident and work to restore the relationships between the two schools’’.
‘‘We care very much about our inter-school relationships and take full responsibility when there are issues that need to be resolved,’’ the statement said.
Selwyn College principal Sheryll Ofner said the abuse was ‘‘very distressing’’.
She said Fountain had been in touch following the incident apologising for his students’ conduct and the two principals have been working ‘‘cooperatively’’ since the incident. Ofner has also expressed concerns to NZF.
‘‘What we’re looking for is some review of what it says in NZF’s Strategic Plan and Code of Conduct around providing a safe environment . . . and their commitment to inclusivity, which is one of their core values,’’ she said.
‘‘And hoping that will be beneficial for everyone to look at what happened and how things might be different going forward, so we are not complicit in perpetuating abuse of human diversity.’’