{"id":276680,"date":"2023-03-09T10:52:31","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T11:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=276680"},"modified":"2023-03-09T22:00:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T22:00:05","slug":"plea-for-life-bans-after-sickening-latrell-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=276680","title":{"rendered":"Plea for life bans after sickening Latrell abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

An emotional South Sydney<\/a> coach Jason Demetriou has called for life bans for anyone found guilty of racist abuse\ufeff in the NRL.<\/p>\n

His plea came after a spectator was ejected from BlueBet Stadium in Penrith on Thursday night for allegedly aiming a racist slur at Rabbitohs superstar Latrell Mitchell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The slur was shouted at Mitchell as players walked off the field at half time. Players and staff immediately stopped and identified the alleged culprit, who was ejected by security.<\/p>\n

AS IT HAPPENED:<\/strong> Panthers vs Rabbitohs\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Mitchell spoke to media, including Nine's broadcast, after the game but did so on the proviso he was not asked about the incident.<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

Demetriou, though, unleashed on the alleged vile abuse.<\/p>\n

He revealed to media it's believed a 15-year-old was the perpetrator.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"It's not the first time we've come here (to Penrith) as a club and our players have been racially abused," Demetriou said.<\/p>\n

"Where does it end? It's just not on.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

"I shouldn't have to come here as a coach and lead a team of players here to be racially abused.<\/p>\n

"It's not what our game is about and we have to stamp it out completely. NRL, clubs, they have to get rid of it.<\/p>\n

"Life bans. Anyone wants to make racial abuse, get them out of the game. We don't want their support.<\/p>\n

\"Brilliant<\/p>\n

"It's got to end.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

NRL CEO Andrew Abdo confirmed that the league was launching an investigation into the incident.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"Any form of racism or vilification will not be tolerated in our sport," Abdo said in a statement on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

"We will not accept this behaviour from anyone"\ufeff<\/p>\n

"We are working with the stadium and the club to get all the facts. The Integrity Unit will investigate fully.<\/p>\n

"We will stand behind our players and commend them for calling out this behaviour."<\/p>\n

Another incident Demetriou referred to was in 2018 when then-Rabbitohs star Greg Inglis was racially abused\ufeff.<\/p>\n

On that occasion two spectators were issued indefinite bans.<\/p>\n

\ufeff\ufeffMitchell has often spoken out against racial abuse he has been subjected to.<\/p>\n

In 2021 he admitted he almost quit the NRL<\/a> because of the ongoing abuse. That same year, two men were arrested \ufefffor using social media to direct racist slurs at Mitchell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"I've been copping this all my life since I was an eight-year-old kid," Mitchell said in 2021.<\/p>\n

"My ancestors before me have and nothing's changed."<\/p>\n

Demetriou says it has to end.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

"He's sick of it. Why wouldn't he be?" he said.<\/p>\n

"He should be able to come here as a star of our game and not be racially abused. Who cares what colour he is? It's just not on.<\/p>\n

"I don't understand how that happens in our day and age.I don't understand how in Australia anyone is raised like that. It makes no sense to me whatsoever.<\/p>\n

"Latrell is a real role model in our game. We love him… he stands for the indigenous people, he stands for good people.<\/p>\n

"But he shouldn't have to handle it, he shouldn't have to keep dealing with this. It's just rubbish.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Demetriou said South Sydney is prepared to pursue legal action against the spectator.<\/p>\n

"We will go all the way, as far as we can with it," he said.<\/p>\n

"As a club we will stand right behind Latrell. As far as I'm concerned we go as far as we can take it.<\/p>\n

"There has to be hard and fast rules – if anyone even comes close to be racial, they are completely ruled out of our game. And if it's a young kid, rule their parents out as well.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An emotional South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou has called for life bans for anyone found guilty of racist abuse\ufeff in the NRL. His plea came […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=276680"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276682,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276680\/revisions\/276682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=276680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=276680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=276680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}