FC Dallas U15s walk off field against Colorado Rapids after alleged racist incident

Following an alleged use of racist language by a Colorado Rapids player, the FC Dallas U15s walked off the field in protest last Friday (September 24th) with the score tied 1-1. The FC Dallas U14s, while trailing 0-1, walked off their game against the Rapids in support of the FCD U15s.

This is the 3rd alleged incident of racist language, each from a different club, experienced by FC Dallas Academy sides in the last year.

Last May, when these current FCD U15s were u14s, there was an alleged incident against Real Colorado that is still under investigation. Then there was another alleged incident versus San Jose in the playoffs experienced by the FCD 2006s (now U17s, then U15s).

After those two previous incidents, FC Dallas U15 coach Alex Aldaz instructed his team to walk off the field it if happened again. An instruction followed through with by his players on Friday. As mentioned above, U14 Coach Scott James pulled his team in support of the U15s.

MLSNext announced last March a “series of initiatives aimed at combating racism, hate, and discrimination while advocating for social justice in the sport of soccer.”

“We are committed to creating lasting change in youth soccer and continuing to build a platform that does not tolerate racism or other discriminatory language or behavior in any context,” said Fred Lipka, MLS NEXT Technical Director, at the time of the initiative.

According to multiple FCD Academy parents, MLSNext sent out a “zero tolerance” policy update to the MLSNext Academy clubs following the alleged Real Colorado incident last May.

Following an incident between Portland and Minnesota during MLS play in June, MLS released a statement that read in part, “MLS has zero tolerance for abusive and offensive language, and we take these allegations very seriously.”

Update (12:40 pm 9/28/21): A statement from FC Dallas: “FC Dallas has a zero-tolerance policy against racism in any shape or form. We 100% support our U15s in their decision to walk off the field in protest this weekend and 100% support our U14s in the decision they made to support our U15 team.“

If I get any additional info I will add it to this post.

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