12-year-old Sethi Balaguru, who plays for Pitshanger FC, was racially abused at a football match in West London. His family has criticised the local Football Association after finding little to no support from them regarding the matter, and they also haven’t received an apology from the offenders in the opposition team.
Balaguru was playing in a nine-a-side match for Pitshanger, when he was the victim of racial abuse by the opposition team. He was tripped and called derogatory names like ‘Indian boy’ during a penalty incident. A player on the opposition team also faked a racist Indian accent to make snide remarks at him.
Sethi, who is of Sri Lankan and British heritage, has been left demoralised after the incident. It has been 16 months since then but he has finally decided to speak out because he wants “everyone to have an equal chance.” He is also concerned that his ethnic heritage might prove to be a roadblock for him in football and wants his case to be sensitively handled.
During the match, Balaguru was the only player of Asian heritage on the pitch. He is of the opinion that “having an Asian background will already bring my chances down by about 50% of being a professional footballer”.
The lack of enough South Asian representatives in the top tier of English football is already a problem. The FA has also described Asian communities as “the most under-represented in almost every area of the grassroots and professional games”.
The racism that Sethi experienced was recorded in the referee’s report while he was playing against Wealdstone Youth FC in October 2020. Although the youngster tried to ‘rise above it,’ he ended up feeling ‘isolated and alone’ after the match.
“I had never experienced it before. I had no way to describe my feelings and I felt paralysed and upset.”
he said.
Pitshanger’s safeguarding office Curtis Alleyne contacted Middlesex FA and Wealdstone regarding the issue, but the Football Association said that action couldn’t be taken because they were under the age of 11.
Wealdstone’s coach also mentioned that he had to shout at a player after registering the Indian accent that was directed towards Balaguru.
