The United States Soccer Federation has criticised the racist comments directed at its men’s team after a shock 2-1 loss to Panama in the Copa America.
USA lost in Atlanta after Timothy Weah was sent off in the 18th minute before goals by Cesar Blackman and Jose Fajarado for Panama cancelled out Folarin Balogun’s opener for the host nation.
It has left USA in second place in Group C ahead of their final group fixture with Uruguay on Monday, but their players were targeted with racism following the narrow defeat.
“U.S. Soccer is aware of and deeply disturbed by the racist comments made online and directed at several of our men’s national team players following tonight’s match,” a statement read.
“There is absolutely no place in the game for such hateful and discriminatory behaviour. These actions are not only unacceptable but also contrary to the values of respect and inclusivity that we uphold as an organisation.
“U.S. Soccer stands firmly against racism in all forms and will continue to support our players.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here