Otto Addo calls for drastic measures from German football after recent racist abuse of Ghanaian players
Coach of the senior national team of Ghana, Otto Addo, has expressed frustration over the growing incidents of racism in German football following the recent abuse of several players in the first round of the DFB Cup, including Black Stars winger Christopher Antwi-Adjei and Kelsey Owusu.
Antwi-Adjei was subjected to racial abuse, including the N-word, during the game between Schalke 04 and Lokomotiv Leipzig, forcing the winger to report the incident to the referee.
Meanwhile, Owusu was targeted on social media the same weekend during the game against Borussia Dortmund, a former club of Addo’s, for a tackle on midfielder Yan Couto.
Elsewhere, Nadiem Amiri of Mainz 05 received hate messages after the match against Kaiserslautern.
Addo, a campaigner against racism through his ‘Roots – Against Racism in Sport’ initiative, has called on the German Football Association (DFB) to make combating this toxic issue their top priority.
“For years, we’ve seen the same pattern: an incident, then downplaying, then silence,” he said, as quoted in Kicker.
“Racism in football is not an accident or a marginal phenomenon; it is a systemic problem,” Addo stressed.
He added: “As long as we talk about individual perpetrators and individual idiots, the system remains untouched. In order to change the system, the DFB and DFL must finally make anti-racism a top priority.”
Addo, born to Ghanaian parents in Germany, spent his entire football career playing in the European country, where he featured for the likes of Hamburger SV and Borussia Dortmund.
Despite his German heritage, he chose to represent Ghana at international level instead of Germany, going on to become the coach of the Black Stars.
