MELBOURNE: Some of the top players in the Australian Football League will be asked to deliver personal appeals to fans to stop verbally abusing players during games, with those pleas potentially being broadcast before each game on scoreboards at all venues.
Two incidents of racial abuse were reported last weekend, including one involving North Melbourne’s Sudanese-born Majak Daw.
The AFL said it would embark on a joint venture with its players to reduce fan abuse and, specifically, racial vilification, and is exploring filmed presentations from players to be screened before games.
The proposal came from the league’s football operations manager, Mark Evans, who said he had seen American football stars filmed on stadium screens before NFL games encouraging fans not to resort to racial, religious or other forms of abuse.
Evans held talks on Thursday with AFL Players Association head Matt Finnis. The scoreboard initiative has been endorsed by AFL chief Andrew Demetriou.
“We encourage self-policing from the players just as we do from our fans,” Demetriou said Friday in comments published in The Age newspaper. “The proposal to combine with the players to send a strong message is terrific.” Evans said he would explore the logistics of filming the scoreboard messaging.
“We don’t want people coming to the game being subjected to abuse and we don’t want it to happen to our players,” he said.
Television reports said Daw, who escaped to Australia with his family from civil wars in Sudan, was racially abused by a Hawthorn supporter during last weekend’s match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
More than 70,000 fans often attend Australian Rules matches at the MCG.
Hawthorn has acknowledged one of its supporters directed inappropriate comments at the 22-year-old Daw and two indigenous players, Daniel Wells and Lindsay Thomas.
A spectator who witnessed the abuse told Channel 9 television she was disgusted.
“It was appalling,” Ayesha Comerford said. “There is no room for that in the AFL, especially in a family-oriented game.” The latest incidents follow claims that two Collingwood supporters racially abused Carlton’s Chris Yarran, another indigenous player, three weeks ago.
AFL to ask top players to help stop racial abuse
