A 3 month ban to a footballer who apparently had engaged in unethical actions – after a local league player had sent racially offensive messages to a basketball player and the matter became public, Latvian Football federation has decided to sanction the footballer for ethical matter.
Latvian Federation bans footballer for unethical statements
The original announcement of LFF only refers to unethical behaviour being the reason, without explaining the details. However, it is believed by the Latvian media that a recent event in relation to the same footballer is the cause for such action by the federation.
The summary of decision of LFF reads:
The Ethical Committee of the Latvian Football Federation (LFF), after examining the case materials, has disqualified FK “Liepāja” player Eduards Tīdenberg from participating in all competitions organized by the LFF for three months.
The disqualification takes effect from tomorrow, March 9th, and is valid until June 8th.
This punishment was applied for the unethical statements of the football player, which are in contradiction with the LFF Code of Ethics.
08 March 2024 announcement by LFF – https://lff.lv/zinas/17414/eduardam-tidenbergam-pieskirta-tris-menesu-diskvalifikacija/
The initial announcement of investigation leaves little doubt as to the event in consideration, as reported by media:
Evans, who was born in the United States, posted a fading message [story] on the social networking site Instagram on Saturday, showing Tiedenberg’s correspondence with him. In it, the football player called the basketball players of this national team slaves and shamed them as representatives of the “totalizator country”, he also wished them to “burn in hell”*
Media summarising what has happened – https://jauns.lv/raksts/sports/596099-futbola-federacijas-etikas-komisija-vertes-eduarda-tidenberga-rasistiskos-apvainojumus-gvinejas-izlases-basketbolistam
* the footballer had originally written “fire in hell”, which might be understood as intentional or erroneous use of words, which might be direct translation of words form Latvian or Russian, as translated and referred to by the media in above excerpt
The reported racism by the Latvian footballer?
Racism has been very sensitive topic in 2023, with 2 formal investigations finding that at least on paper “racism in Latvian football does not exist”.
An unexpected and unlikely screenshot in twitter was leaked:
The player published an instagram story, implicitly confirming that the screenshot can be perceived as real, and apologising. Also teammates and the club carried out certain activities to help the colleague.
Media reactions
Important context to the ban was given by the media: there had been no doubt that the ban was related to the racial offence:
- https://news.inbox.lv/14wdi1a-tidenbergs-par-rupjibam-gvinejas-basketbolistam-diskvalificets-uz-gandriz-pusi-sezonas?language=lv
- https://jauns.lv/raksts/sports/597722-liepajas-futbolists-tidenbergs-lidz-junijam-diskvalificets-par-rasistiskiem-izteikumiem
Could it be something else
There hadn’t been any other investigation by the ethical committee at that time, neither in relation to the same footballer.
We inform you that the published information about the actions and statements of Latvian football player Eduards Tīdenbergs has come to the attention of the LFF Ethics Committee. The committee will review this situation shortly.
LFF announcement on 25 Feb 2024 through Twitter (X)
Any doubts?
1. Were the messages sent
(a) simply unethical, as LFF Ethics committee concluded,
or
(b) is it more significantly a racism case?
2. Is a screenshot of correspondence from a social media account (not verified – without the famous blue “check” mark) enough to disqualify an athlete? We have to consider, of course, that the teammates and the club implicitly admitted the account belongs to the guy, and he had had effective control over the account at all times. Had he disputed the ownership of the account, might have saved half of season’s worth. Could he?
3. Are we still in the land of “no racism exists in Latvian football” (or even Latvian sports overall), or we are safe to assume that the media classifications are enough to move on from that statement? The official decision does not specify this nuance.
