This month, U.S. defender Oguchi Onyewu used a rare tactic to seek redress for racial remarks uttered at him by another player in a playoff last month to decide the Belgian league championship. Onyewu, who has grown tired of monkey noises and racial remarks made by fans toward black players, filed a legal complaint in a Belgian court, claiming an opposing player, Jelle Van Damme, violated the country’s laws against public insult and criminal defamation.
“I just wanted to make it public,” Onyewu, 27, “People have got to be aware that certain things in sport are not acceptable.” Jean-Louis Dupont, Onyewu’s Belgian lawyer, said in a telephone interview that Onyewu was not seeking monetary damages but simply wanted “moral compensation.” In other words, a public apology. “You have players of African origin who are regularly pushed by opponents with words to provoke or unsettle them,” Dupont said. “Most don’t have the professional status to come in the open and say, ‘I’ve had enough of that.’ Oguchi is a big guy, mentally and physically. He’s well established. With this action, he is saying, ‘If I don’t do it, who is going to do it?’ “
International soccer officials, who do not want to lose disciplinary control of their sport, said they believed players should seek remedies available through sports bodies, not the courts, when dealing with racism. “They should not take legal action,” Joseph S. Blatter, the president of FIFA, said.