Racism scandal at Hansa Rostock: perpetrator comes forward

The racism incident at FC Hansa Rostock’s second league match against 1. FC Kaiserslautern has been resolved.

The racism incident at FC Hansa Rostock’s second league match against 1. FC Kaiserslautern has been cleared up. The spectator who allegedly racially insulted the Lauterne double goal scorer Terrence Boyd during the match on Friday evening has reported to the club “and confessed to the offence”, the club announced on Monday. FC Hansa will draw the appropriate consequences and initiate stadium ban proceedings. Earlier, the Rostock police had announced that the State Security Service was investigating on suspicion of insult and incitement of the people.

Boyd had scored both goals in FCK’s 2-0 win in Rostock, and after the second goal he was loudly racially insulted by a person from the Hansa block, which was also heard on the Sky broadcast. “F.C. Hansa Rostock regrets this incident and has already apologised to Terrence Boyd in a personal telephone call and in writing to 1. FC Kaiserslautern,” Hansa had said on Sunday.

To “verbally attack and personally insult an opposing player is not only disrespectful and unacceptable, but also unworthy of our club,” it had continued.

“That is simply stupid, because the club is tendentiously pushed into a corner by such a statement by an individual, into which it does not belong,” said board chairman Robert Marien to the “Ostsee-Zeitung”. He himself had called Boyd and asked the striker to apologise. The Bremen-born former US international had thanked him on Twitter.