Serbian volleyball star Sanja Djurdjevic has been banned for two games and fined 20,000 Swiss francs for a racist gesture in a match against Thailand last week. Footage showed her eyes becoming slits, which sparked a lot of commotion online. Djurdjevic will therefore miss Serbia’s upcoming matches against Belgium and Canada.
The Serbian volleyball federation has meanwhile apologized in an official communiqué, saying it regrets what happened. “We offer our sincere apologies to the Thailand squad, the people of Thailand and anyone who was hurt by this,” the federation wrote on Facebook. “Sanja knows she made a mistake and immediately apologized. But she didn’t mean it as a hurtful gesture. She just wanted to give her teammates a sign that “we have to defend like them now”. Of course it was unfortunate.”
Thousands of people have already signed a petition to have Djurdjevic punished for her racist gesture.
