Swedish team sack entire squad for homophobic abuse
Table of Contents
Swedish minnows Sörskogens have sacked their entire first-team squad for chanting homophobic slurs at a rival team during a match.
According to local newspaper Aftonbladet, the verbal abuse occurred during a seventh-division match against the Stockholm Snipers, a team openly profiled as being "homosexual, bi-sexual and trans-sexual".
During the game, Sörskogens team members were heard uttering insults like "you suck d*ck for 50 kronor", "all of you have HIV" and "we're probably going to get infected."
Some of the lineup even encouraged fans to join in with abuse and made threats against the Snipers, leaving the team visibly shaken.
Indeed, Snipers coach Christoffer Smitz has since revealed his players locked themselves in the dressing and waited for the ground to empty at full-time.
Sörskogens were initially fined 5,000 kronor by the Stockholm Football Association, the first time the league has penalized a team for homophobic behavior.
But that wasn't the end of it because, when the details were relayed to Sörskogens' board, they agreed to sack all of the first-team squad who were involved in the game.
"We had no choice but to close down the whole team," said Sörskogens president Ketil Torp.
"This kind of abuse fits neither in football nor outside the game. We are a club with 90% youth players and it must be clear that this is not in our values."
 | |
| The entire first-team of Sörskogens was sacked over homophobic behaviour |
According to local newspaper Aftonbladet, the verbal abuse occurred during a seventh-division match against the Stockholm Snipers, a team openly profiled as being "homosexual, bi-sexual and trans-sexual".
During the game, Sörskogens team members were heard uttering insults like "you suck d*ck for 50 kronor", "all of you have HIV" and "we're probably going to get infected."
Some of the lineup even encouraged fans to join in with abuse and made threats against the Snipers, leaving the team visibly shaken.
Indeed, Snipers coach Christoffer Smitz has since revealed his players locked themselves in the dressing and waited for the ground to empty at full-time.
Sörskogens were initially fined 5,000 kronor by the Stockholm Football Association, the first time the league has penalized a team for homophobic behavior.
But that wasn't the end of it because, when the details were relayed to Sörskogens' board, they agreed to sack all of the first-team squad who were involved in the game.
"We had no choice but to close down the whole team," said Sörskogens president Ketil Torp.
"This kind of abuse fits neither in football nor outside the game. We are a club with 90% youth players and it must be clear that this is not in our values."
