Racial Abuse Incident at APL 8.0

The 8th iteration of the Ashokan Premier League (APL), Ashoka University’s inter-university football tournament, witnessed an incident of racial abuse on Saturday, 19th April. The incident occurred right after the full-time whistle blew for a group stage match between APL teams Elephant FC and Fuelzone FC. A Fuelzone FC player directed racially discriminatory abuse at an Elephant FC player after the two had locked horns throughout the course of the game. 

The accused player's team, Fuelzone FC, was immediately given a yellow card for the offence. The perpetrating player was also barred from playing the remaining matches and has since been disqualified from the tournament. Fuelzone FC lost their subsequent penalty shootout and were knocked out of APL 8.0. 

The Organising Committee of APL issued a public statement on their social media account after 19th April’s events, apologising for and condemning the incident. The statement reaffirmed upholding the values of the tournament and the sport at large, and asserted that such incidents will be met with the  strictest of consequences in the future.