Swiss soccer player kicked off Olympic team for discriminatory tweet
BBC Sport 30 July 2012
Michel Morganella (right) during Switzerland's match against South Korea. (Getty)
Following Switzerland's 2-1 loss to South Korea in the Olympic men's soccer tournament on Sunday, 23-year-old Swiss defender Michel Morganella expressed his frustration with a discriminatory tweet that has gotten him expelled from the squad and sent home by Swiss team officials. The message, which said that Koreans should "burn themselves" and described them as "retards" was followed by an apology in English before Morganella's @morgastoss account was deleted from the social networking site, but after a quick investigation, the Swiss team chief decided that this required further action.
From Reuters:
"He discriminated, insulted and violated the dignity of the South Korean football team and the South Korean people," Swiss team chief Gian Gilli told reporters.
This makes Morganella the second Olympic athlete to be dropped from the Games for a racially charged tweet after Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou was left in Athens last week for her attempt at a joke about Africans in Greece.
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