Peruvian Newspaper Aims Racial Slurs at Black Ecuadorian Soccer Stars Before Copa Match

Ecuador and Peru’s exciting and dramatic match on Thursday night at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona is what soccer should be about. What happened on the periphery isn’t. On the day of the game, Peruvian paper Todo Sport released a racist and denigrating cover that took aim at the opposing team’s mostly Afro-Ecuadorian players. Almost a third of the front page is covered in big red letters that say, “¡A Freir Monos!” Two of Peru’s lighter skinned players are pictured celebrating behind the words.

The backlash was swift, and with Peruvians rising up against the paper, the Federación Peruana de Fútbol followed suit and also denounced Todo Sport‘s message. With one simple illustration of two players hugging, they said, “Today we are sports rivals. Never enemies.”

Fans filled the post with positive comments, and applauded them. And the Federación Peruana de Fútbol’s on-point message became especially important because Todo Sport issued a BS non-apology. Coming in three hours after, the Federación Peruana, Sport said it just used everyday language and that its team is “dedicated to fighting racism and discrimination.” However, the one word their message is missing is the word sorry.

José Carlos Porras Jordán’s comment best sums up what’s wrong with Todo‘s statement. “First of all, you should say you’re sorry and retract, not justify the racism of your ‘journalists’; people like you are an embarrassment to this profession,” he said. “The good thing is that it’s only a group of imbeciles. The grand majority of the Peruvian people aren’t infected with this archaic rancor.”

Unfortunately, this doesn’t wrap it up on the bigoted front. During half time of the match, popular comedian Carlos Alvarez once again used blackface to ridicule Peruvian player Jefferson Farfán on América TV’s live coverage. The hosts laugh along as Alvarez goes on with his racist bit.

This behavior is not just limited to Peru, and Latino/Latin American players have been on both sides of the story. Racism in soccer is global. A 2015 Fare network and Sova Center report found 200 incidents in Russian soccer between 2012 and 2014. A 2013 feature by ESPN titled “When the Beautiful Game Turns Ugly,” explores Italy’s history of racism.