The captain of Spain’s women’s football team has apologized after the team shared a video of their players mocking New Zealand’s haka, a traditional Indigenous Māori dance.
In the now-deleted video, four players can be seen laughing while yelling, slapping their knees and jumping in the air.
It was shared on the team’s social media with the caption “We are already acclimatised” shortly after the team arrived in New Zealand on July 10 for the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
The video was later deleted due to backlash.
Haka are a variety of ceremonial dances in the culture of New Zealand’s Indigenous Māori people.
The dances are often performed in a group and involve vigorous body movements, including stamping feet and slapping hands against the body, accompanied by rhythmic shouting.
It is performed by many of the country’s sports teams before international matches as a challenge to opponents, with the All Blacks, the national rugby team, being the most well-known example.
On Monday July 17, a week after the video was posted, Spain’s captain Ivana Andrés finally apologized on behalf of the team at their official welcome ceremony held by a local tribe in Palmerston North.
“We’ve only been a few days in Aotearoa New Zealand, and there’s still much to learn about this culture. We appreciate you teaching us during these minutes,” Andrés said in Spanish.
She said they “ask forgiveness for our mistakes and be better each day” and gifted a Spain team jersey to the tribe.
The Netherlands’ players also shared a video appearing to mock the haka.
It shows the Dutch players laughing as they squat, slap their knees and make grunting noises.
The Dutch team said the players were doing an exercise on “channelling your inner strength”.
The video has since been deleted.
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People around the world have been left outraged after Black Brazilian soccer player Vinícius Júnior was repeatedly racially abused during a game in Spain.
22-year-old Vinicius Jr, who plays for Real Madrid, was racially abused by Valencia fans during the match at Mestalla Stadium in Valencia on Sunday May 22.
At around the 68 minute mark of the game, Vinicius Jr, who had the ball, was knocked over by a second ball on the pitch, which appeared to have been deliberately kicked towards him by Valencia player Eray Comert.
Right after the referee gave Comert a yellow card, Vinicius Jr suddenly starts calling the referee over and pointing to Valencia supporters in the stands.
Visibly upset, Vinicius Jr walks up and confronts the fans, who are shown shouting and pulling the middle finger at him in another video of the incident.
The referee’s official report from the game said that a fan had shouted “monkey, monkey” at Vinicius, according to CNN.
He was then ushered away by his teammates and Valencia players, before speaking to the referee and Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti.
Video of the game later showed Vinicius welling up with tears after the incident.
Later on in the match, a mass altercation breaks out between the players on both teams, and Valencia’s Hugo Duro is seen placing Vinicius in a chokehold.
Vinicius eventually breaks free and pushes Duro off him, hitting Duro’s face with his arm as he does so.
However, Vinicius is the one who is sent off with a red card.
“What we saw today is unacceptable – an entire stadium chanting racist slurs,” Ancelotti said, BBC Sport reported.
Vinicius Jr has been repeatedly subject to racist abuse by fans since the season began in August.
In January, Atletico Madrid fans hung an effigy of him from a bridge in Madrid.
Following the match on Sunday, Vinicius took to social media to condemn La Liga for normalizing racism.
“It wasn’t the first time, nor the second, nor the third. Racism is normal in La Liga,” Vinicius tweeted after the game. “The competition thinks it’s normal, the Federation does too and the opponents encourage it… The championship that once belonged to Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cristiano and Messi today belongs to racists.”
“A beautiful nation, which welcomed me and which I love, but which agreed to export the image of a racist country to the world. I’m sorry for the Spaniards who don’t agree, but today, in Brazil, Spain is known as a country of racists,” he wrote. “And unfortunately, for everything that happens each week, I have no defense. I agree. But I am strong and I will fight to the end against racists. Even if that is far from here.”
La Liga’s president Javier Tebas then tweeted that Vinicius did not show up twice to a meeting to discuss what it can do in cases of racism.
“Before you criticise and slander La Liga you need to inform yourself properly,” Tebas tweeted.
“Instead of criticizing racists, the president of La Liga appears on social media to attack me,” Vinicius tweeted in response. “I’m not your friend to talk about racism. I want actions and punishments. Hashtags dont move me.”
Real Madrid released an official statement on Monday condemning the racial abuse, calling it “a direct attack on the social and democratic model of coexistence of our State based on the rule of law.”
It said that it had reported the incident as a hate crime to the Attorney General’s office.
Valencia called the incident an “isolated episode” but said it would investigate and “take the most severe measures.”
“Although this is an isolated episode, insults to any player from the rival team have no place in football and do not fit in with the values and identity of Valencia CF,” it said.
Police said they have since arrested seven fans, four for allegedly hanging the effigy in January and three others for the racial insults during the Valencia match on Sunday, according to CNN.
Also on Monday, Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, commonly referred to as Lula, called on FIFA, the Spanish league and other leagues to take real action “because we cannot allow facism and racism to dominate football stadiums.”
On Monday, Brazil turned off the lights on the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro to show solidarity with h.
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