Eljero Elia’s anti-Moroccan slur leads to Twitter ban
Holland’s World Cup squad has been banned from tweeting after team member Eljero Elia made racist comments on a live streaming video online. He was playing a computer game in front of a web cam when he reportedly made anti-Moroccan comments. The row led to the Dutch coach, Bert van Marwijk, to force Elia to apologize and ban the World Cup players from tweeting. “I want to apologize to the Moroccan community but I am not a racist,” said Elia to the Dutch media. “What I said was meant for a friend of mine, Reduan, who always calls me ‘negro’ … it sounds odd, but it is some slang.” It’s not the first time the Dutch squad has landed itself in hot water because of tweets. Last year, young defender Van der Wiel was in the spotlight after he didn’t play a friendly against Australia because of a concussion, but later tweeted that he had gone to a concert the night before. Oops.