American player receives multiple racist messages after ejection from game
Joonas Oden, is an American-born player who is currently playing hockey in Finland. Yesterday he was ejected from a Finnish Elite League game, only to have his Instagram account flooded with racist messages. Oden's mother is a Finnish resident, and her son has been playing in the FEL for the last 4 season. During yesterday's game Oden was assessed a 5-minute major for kneeing an opponent, that's when the racist messages began.
Clearly theses messages are extremely inappropriate and should have never been sent or said by anyone. This behavior is inexcusable for anyone, let alone a fan. and the team he was playing against felt the same issuing this statement:
We strongly condemn such use of language. This does not represent our support community and its values.
We will address, and will continue to address, inappropriate and illegal comments as much as we can!
We will address, and will continue to address, inappropriate and illegal comments as much as we can!
Scott Pooley, who plays for Rauman Lukko, the team's this infraction occured against released this statement of his own.
The comments on Joonas Oden's Instagram tonight are infuriating. No matter what happens in a game, he is not only a talented athlete but a human being. There is no room for racism in hockey. I speak for our team in saying we condemn this behavior and offer our apologies to Joonas
This is just another racist incident in a sport we all love so much. Some hockey fans just need to be better and not take the game so seriously.
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