African player racially insulted, amateur team leaves pitch

Players from ninth-tier German side SC Lauchringen left the field during their match with FC Weizen on Sunday after a fan yelled what they deemed to be a racist remark against one of their players.

According to local newspaper Südkurier, the player in question, Ghana-native Kebba Mamadou, walked to the sideline in tears during a match in the Kreisliga A Hochrhein in southwestern Germany after the fan yelled: "Hey you black man, stop it!" However, Mamadou himself refused to confirm exactly what he had heard.

The incident occurred with Weizen leading 4-1 in the 85th minute, when Mamadou went into a tackle near the Weizen bench, the newspaper reported. 

"A spectator racially insulted our player. We therefore decided to leave the field," the Südkurier quoted Lauchringen chairman Thomas Kummer as saying. "We stand behind our players."

'Solidarity deserves our respect'

After the incident occurred, the referee conferred with the captains from both teams, but was unable to convince Lauchringen to finish the match, and the team's players headed for the dressing room, exchanging words with spectators on the way. According to the Lauchringen chairman, one of the sentences uttered was: "Why is a black guy wearing a white jersey for you?"

"I was far away and didn't hear it myself," Kummer's son Tobias, who is the team captain, said. "I was only told by teammates that Kebba was racially insulted. That's why we decided to stop the game."

Thomas Krummer said he believed he had indentified two of three culprits after the match was abandoned, but that the main one had already left.

For their part, Weizen said they understood Lauchringen's decision to walk off the pitch.

"SC Lauchringen's team solidarity deserves our respect," Weizen's chairman, Jannik Boma, said in a statement posted on the club's website. "We are very sorry, and we apologize to him (Mamadou) for this situation."