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In a big development, the Football Association (FA), the governing body of the sport in England, is currently in the midst of investigating Rafaela Borggrafe, the Liverpool women’s goalkeeper, for allegedly making a racist remark at her team-mate during pre-season training camp. While the words the 25-year-old spoke to her unnamed teammate aren’t being revealed, it is alleged to be the usage of discriminatory language.
As per the report from BBC Sport, the Liverpool women’s team manager, Gareth Taylor, spoke to them about the absence of Rafaela Borggrafe from the 4-1 Everton defeat at Anfield in the Women’s Super League on September 7, stating that it was due to an “internal issue”. Because of this, she had made her return to the homeland of Germany, to end up missing a few training sessions with her teammates, as per the statement of the club without mentioning the reason at the time.
LFC is aware of an alleged use of discriminatory language by an LFC Women's player: Club statement
Although Rafaela Borggrafe made it back to England a few days later before being named on the bench for Liverpool’s defeat at the King Power Stadium against Leicester City 1-0 on September 14. Notably, she got signed by Liverpool from SC Freiburg in Germany in the summer transfer window, but the 25-year-old is yet to play a competitive game for the club after being a regular part of the pre-season friendlies.
Liverpool made a statement about the FA investigation on Rafaela Borggrafe, which reads, “LFC is aware of an alleged use of discriminatory language by an LFC Women's player. The club has followed its protocols to the fullest extent and the alleged incident has been reported to the FA, which is conducting an investigation with our full support. We condemn all forms of discrimination; it has no place in football or society. We are unable to comment further while the investigation is ongoing.”
In their next match in the Women’s Super League, Liverpool will be taking on arch-rivals Manchester United at the Totally Wicked Stadium in Merseyside on Sunday, September 28.
