Oguchi Onyewu Sues Jelle Van Damme Over Racial Abuse

By: Daryl | June 3rd, 2009

This probably should have happened a long time ago. But it’s finally happening now. Standard Liege’s American defender Oguchi Onyewu (pictured) is suing Anderlecht’s Jelle Van Damme for (allegedly) racially abusing him, during the first leg of the Belgian title playoff.

Onyweu claims Van Damme called him a “dirty monkey”, which the Belgian defender denies. According to Onyewu’s court complaint Van Damme used the insult three times, Onyewu alerted the referee but no action was taken, and Onyewu was only prevented from leaving the pitch by teammates who persuaded him to keep playing.

That first leg finished 1-1, but Standard won the second leg 1-0 to take the title.

“He was convinced it was his duty to lodge the complaint,” Onyewu’s lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont said. “It is not a question whether Van Damme is racist. The issue is that these slurs are still used on the pitch, and are being used because they know it hurts.”‘

Onyewu is seeking personal damages, but mainly – according to his court papers – “wants to contribute to eradicate such behaviour in football.”

Obviously this is one man’s word against another. But I’m 99.9% inclined to believe Onyewu here. He seems a quiet sort of fella, not the type to go looking for trouble or headlines. Plus, his team won the title. He beat Van Damme on the pitch before taking him to court, which must have come as a surprise to the Anderlecht man. Or, as said yesterday: “I don’t think you’re ready for this, Jelle.”

I’ve got some sympathy for referees in cases like this, because there’s maybe not much a ref can do when one player claims another is abusing him. Refs can only act on what they see and hear, and most abuse happens when the ref’s attention is elsewhere.

And sometimes the football authorities are just that: football authorities. They’re not really the ideal organization to handle issues like racial abuse, which leads some players to think they can get away with this stuff in the context of a match.

So maybe Onyewu’s course of action – sidestepping the football authorities and heading straight to court – is the only way to go. If Onyewu’s legal action is successful, then hopefully it will encourage other players to step forward, and discourage would-be-racists from opening their mouths in the first place.