One of Japan’s top soccer teams will be playing its next home game before a crowd of zero after not removing a banner deemed racist.
The Japan Professional Football League (or J. League) said Thursday the Urawa Reds won’t have a single fan in the stands for their next home game, as punishment for a banner hung at last Saturday’s game that read “Japanese only” in English.
Normally, a home game attracts an average of 37,000 spectators.
The punishment comes after fans attending the March 8 game at the team’s home stadium, in Saitama City, on the outskirts of Tokyo, hung the banner above the entrance to the lower concourse, next to a Japanese flag.
Despite the fact a number of spectators complained about the banner, which chair Mitsuru Murai recognized “as a racist expression,” and team officials saw it during halftime, the banner remained in place until the end of the game – which the Reds lost 1-0 to Sagan Tosu.
According to the Asahi Shimbun, it’s the “harshest punishment” the 21-year-old league has handed out in its history. It’s considered a level four penalty in the league’s nine-tier penalty system.
“The exposure this incident has had over the past few days has reverberated around the country and overseas and has done untold damage to the J. League’s image,” Murai said Thursday. “I hope Urawa Reds take this punishment very seriously and take strong measures to make sure nothing like this happens again.”
The fan-less game will take place on March 23.
The crowd members that put up the banner are now indefinitely banned from attending the team’s games, according to the Japan Times.
The Asahi Shimbun also reported this week officials were looking into allegations of racist remarks made by some fans during the game, something the Reds have been fined for not controlling before.
The team had to pay a 5-million yen ($50,621 CAD) fine in 2010 after Reds supporters yelled racist remarks at foreign-born players on the opposing Vegalta Sendai. It also paid a 20-million yen ($195,736 CAD) fine in 2008 when Reds fans brawled at a match against Gamba Osaka.
The team itself is also responding to the incident by immediately forbidding fans from displaying banners at games.
And team president Keizo Fuchita said he “would like to use this severe punishment as a chance to make a fresh start” in keeping a better eye on what goes on at Reds games, Japan Times reported.
The J. League said the sign and the actions of the Reds supporters who hung it up reflected a small minority of the supporters who attend the games.
Meanwhile, supporters of another J. League team, the Yokohama F Marinos, took an additional step to counter the controversial banner by unfurling their own banner at an AFC Championships League Match, in Yokohama on Wednesday, reading the phrase “Show Racism the Red Card.”
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