The Brisbane Lions have been made aware of a supporter racially vilifying forward Allen Christensen via social media on Saturday night.
The comment, made via a private Facebook group, goes against the values the Club stands for and will not be tolerated in any form. It has been established that the individual, while they identify as a Lions supporter, they are not a member of the club.
The individual will be barred from becoming a member of the Club in the future, unless they can demonstrate they have participated in appropriate cultural awareness training and the Club is convinced they have learnt from this terrible mistake.
Brisbane Lions Chairman Andrew Wellington says these types of comments will never be allowed at the Club.
“The comment is disgraceful and completely at odds with the values of the Brisbane Lions. Racism stops with us and has no place in our society.” Wellington said.
“The Club works strongly with our stakeholders including Deadly Choices and Multicultural Development Australia to educate our players, staff and community on respect in our society, and this will only strengthen our resolve to continue those efforts.
“Allen and any other players or staff impacted by these comments will be given the full support of the Club, the AFL and the AFLPA.”
Allen Christensen wished to make the following statement:
“I am obviously disappointed having these comments forwarded to me on the weekend after such a great win for the Club.
In a week where the Adam Goodes film has been shown nationwide and on the back on NAIDOC week, myself and the Club will keep striving to educate the wider Brisbane and AFL community that these comments are not acceptable.
These sort of comments have a great effect on families, teammates and players around the league and the country. We as a game have come a long way, but ‘ok’ is not good enough and I know highlighting this type of racial stereotyping will all keep us going forward as a community.
My family thanks you for all the support and we look forward to this week against the Hawks.“
