Indigenous football players who claim they were subjected to racist remarks by a head coach at Melbourne’s Hawthorn Football Club have made “extremely serious accusations,” according to the Australian Football League, which is currently looking into them.
Australian Football League is looking into complaints of racism
According to a former Hawthorn player, the previous coach of the AFL team gave him the go-ahead to have his partner’s pregnancy ended. From 2005 until 2011, the same person coached Hawthorn. They alleged they were harassed and forced to choose among their soccer aspirations and their families by three Indigenous people who were engaged.
Indigenous players on Australian principles football teams, many of whom are outstanding players, complain constantly regarding stadium harassment from fans.However, this is the first time a coaching staff has been accused of serious racism.
In response to allegations of racism at the club while that person served as coach, Hawthorn commissioned an outside review earlier this year. Two weeks ago, the AFL’s integrity unit and Hawthorn hierarchy received the external review document.
According to the ABC, the dossier contained accusations that important Hawthorn players had demanded to split up young Indigenous players from their partners. For the player’s career, it was claimed that one couple was forced to have a pregnancy terminated. The player informed ABC that a number of coaches, including the head coach and his assistant, encouraged him to end his partner’s pregnancy, split up with his partner, and move into an assistant coach’s house.
Later that day, the Brisbane Lions, an AFL team, released a statement confirming that they were aware that “senior coach Chris Fagan would work with the AFL on an investigation into accusations surrounding past occurrences at Hawthorn Football Club, where he was a previous employee.”
In the statement from the Lions, it was said that Chris “supports and welcomes the investigation.” He is eager to have the chance to be heard as part of the AFL probe because he was not consulted during the Hawthorn-sponsored assessment.
In order to fully participate with the investigation, Chris has mutually agreed with the Brisbane Lions that he will take a leave of absence from the team. During that time, Fagan shared a Melbourne club with Hawthorn head coach Alastair Clarkson. The investigation’s primary focus, according to the ABC, was Clarkson.
