Landon Donovan: Ending discrimination in football the goal for SD Loyal team who walked off
- Published
Collin Martin (left) joined Landon Donovan's SD Loyal in February 2020
Landon Donovan's football team made headlines around the world when they walked off the pitch after a homophobic slur was aimed at one of their players.
Donovan, one of America's greatest players turned fledgling manager, says San Diego Loyal took no pleasure in abandoning a game.
But the message was clear - discrimination is "not OK", and footballers can help wipe it out.
"It's the world's biggest sport by a million miles," says Donovan.
"So why don't we use it in a way that's positive and powerful?"
Last year was the newly formed San Diego Loyal's first in the USL Championship, the American game's second level.
They were in play-off contention until the closing stages of the season, when they forfeited a game against LA Galaxy II after one of their players, Elijah Martin, was racially abused.
Then came the homophobic slur aimed at Collin Martin, a midfielder who is gay, in a fixture against Phoenix Rising.
Elijah Martin is a former LA Galaxy II player
"The context matters quite a bit," explains 39-year-old Donovan, winner of 157 USA caps and the manager and co-founder of SD Loyal.
"The week previously we had a player racially abused.
"He heard it and one other player on our team heard it but they didn't say anything to anybody else.
"After the match they were quite upset about it in the locker room and it was a pretty disturbing moment for our team.
"So we made the decision that if this were to happen again, we were going to say something.
"Maybe we don't stop the match, maybe we don't walk off, but we needed to say something to their coach, to the referee. We needed to let people know because it's not OK just to carry on with that.
"Of course, as fate has it, the next week a player on our team who is openly gay had a homophobic slur hailed at him.
"It was right before half-time. We went in at half-time and I have never been in a locker room like that in my life.
"He was devastated. The team was trying to figure out what to do because the emotion was going, the adrenalin was going. They were beating the best team in the league 3-1 at home. Everyone was excited about it.
"But, he's their team-mate and a guy they have grown to love over the course of the season.
"So in the end we made the decision that if the (opposition) player wasn't removed from the game, either through being sent off, his coach removing him or him removing himself, we weren't going to continue.
"I said that to the official and I said that to the coach, I said if he's not off the field then we are not going to play.
"Maybe they didn't believe it, but when they made the decision not to, we decided we had to walk off."
Collin Martin said he had never had a slur directed at him during a match before the Phoenix Rising incident in October 2020
Donovan's players had re-emerged for the second half only to take the knee and depart.
They had earlier chosen to forfeit the point they earned against LA Galaxy II - that match ended 1-1 - after learning of the racial abuse aimed at Elijah Martin.
The decision to abandon the Phoenix Rising game ended SD Loyal's play-off hopes - but there were no doubts.
"I know walking off during a match doesn't happen but I just thought it was pretty obvious," adds Donovan, a veteran of three World Cups whose former clubs include LA Galaxy, Bayern Munich and Everton.
"If people are going to allow that to happen, I don't want to be a part of that.
"This weekend there will be hundreds of soccer games around the world. It's just one game, but it meant a lot to a lot of people who don't have allies and don't have people sticking up for them, so I was really proud of our guys."
The USL handed a six-game ban to Elijah Martin's abuser, Omar Ontiveros, who also "mutually agreed to part ways" with LA Galaxy II.
Jamaica international Junior Flemmings was also banned for six matches by the USL over the homophobic comment aimed at Collin Martin.
Flemmings was released at the end of the season by Phoenix Rising, although he has since joined another USL side, Birmingham Legion.
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"I want to be clear here," Donovan says.
"The goal is never to ruin somebody's life because they made a mistake or made a dumb comment. We have all done dumb things or said something stupid or something we regret.
"That's not the goal. The goal is how do we get it out of our game?
"Whether we like it or not, we are role models. People are paying attention, people are watching.
"You just can't do that. You can't do it anywhere in society, but we have an added responsibility so we can't allow that to happen."
Donovan believes sanctioning clubs rather than individuals would help rid football of discrimination.
"People react when there are consequences," he says. "So if their club had been docked 10 points and they were out of the play-offs because this happened, I can promise you heading into this pre-season, they would have a lot of sensitivity training to help the players understand why this is important.
"But hopefully more than that, not just because there are consequences, but (training would) help people understand that hey, that's actually quite hurtful to somebody to say that.
"You might not think it's that big a deal, but this kid has been dealing with this his whole life.
"People have been calling him gay or slurs his whole life. That's not okay.
"So once you start that process, aside from teams being proactive so they don't get docked points - because let's be honest that what they care about - you would also start to create a change in people's behaviours.
"So they wouldn't do it on the field and eventually - I do believe this and there's science to back this up - when you change behaviour, it changes your beliefs over time."
