"Please, don’t blow this out of proportion!"
A Serbian volleyball player has apologized after making a slant-eye gestured towards a Thai team.
The incident occurred when the two teams were playing a match in Italy.
Serbian player Sanja Djurdevic was caught on camera using two fingers to pull back her eyes in response to a Thai player who failed to score a point.
The Volleyball Federation of Serbia responded by issuing an apology statement.
“We are deeply saddened by the recent events that took place during the Serbia vs Thailand #VNL match in Rimini and the unfortunate gesture of our player Sanja Djurdjevic,” the statement read.
“We apologise sincerely to the Thailand team, people of Thailand and to all of you affected by this.
“But, please, don’t blow this out of proportion! Sanja is aware of her mistake and she immediately apologised to the whole Thailand team. She only wanted to show her teammates ‘let’s start playing defence like them now’, she didn’t mean any disrespect. Of course, it was unfortunate.
“It all ended up as a simple misunderstanding, in a friendly atmosphere between the players of the two teams. ”
Djurdevic also issued a similar apology via social media, echoing her team’s message.
“I am aware of my mistake and I immediately after the match apologized to the whole Thailand team,” she wrote on an Instagram post.
“I only wanted to address my teammates with the message: ‘now we will start playing defense like them’, I didn’t mean to disrespect anyone.”
Thai player Pleumjit Thinkaow, who made the error that led to Djurdevic’s gesture, posted a video with the Serbian player, saying she accepted the Serbian’s apology.
“Everyone. [Djurdevic] walked to our room. She said she was so stressed. She said she didn’t have the intention [to offend us]. Please forgive her,” Pleumjit wrote in Thai.
Four years ago
The insensitive incident comes four years after the entire Serbian volleyball team posed in a photo with the majority pulling their faces after learning of their qualification in Japan.
The photo was ultimately pulled by the FIVB Volleyball Nations League.
In other sports news, Tokyo Olympics officials are providing 160,000 condoms to athletes to use only in their home countries.
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