MONTREAL – Dominic Oduro was the victim of racial abuse in the Montreal Impact’s CONCACAF Champions League semifinal match at Alajuelense. On Tuesday, CONCACAF brought the hammer down.
Alajuelense were fined an undisclosed amount for discrimination by the team’s supporters, and the club will not be allowed to play their next home CCL match at Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto, their home stadium.
At a press conference prior to the Impact’s training session on Tuesday, Oduro reacted to the sanctions.
“I think they did the right thing,” he said, “I wasn’t making this up out of the blue. It was something that really happened."
The Ghanaian forward did not know many of the details of the sanctions, as he learned about them on Twitter.
“It takes away the fun of the game,” he said. “I think we are in this to enjoy this beautiful game, for some of the fans to do that was uncalled for.”
Racist chants have been a plight on world soccer for years, and there have been many recent attempts to end this negative mark in the game. This includes a social media campaign from Barcelona and Brazilian national team teammates Neymar and Dani Alves.
Oduro iterated similar sentiments in hopes of eliminating these kinds of problems.
“I think we are in this together as much as possible to eradicate racism in the sport that we love,” he said.
The 29-year-old assisted on Ignacio Piatti’s goal in the first leg of the Champions League finals and is expected to feature for Frank Klopas’ side in the second leg.
