Czech ice hockey trainer sharply condemns racist insults against Romani captain Dominik Lakatoš
After a 12-year hiatus, the Vítkovice ice hockey team has made it into the top four of the Czech Extraliga. However, the balanced series of matches, which were full of emotions, also brought forth racist insults from Kometa Brno fans during their match against Vítkovice which visiting captain Dominik Lakatoš, who is of Romani origin, had to endure.
Despite those incidents, Vítkovice eventually became the winner of the series, but their trainer, Miloš Holaň, made sure to mention and condemn the behavior of the fans on the opposite side at a press conference. “I am a trainer who always stands up for the players. For me, the only blemish on this series was the racist abuse against Dominik Lakatoš, that crossed the line. I do not like the fact that this is never punished in the stadiums,” Holaň said at the post-match press conference.
He was responding to the vulgar chants that were heard from the Kometa Brno fans during the first third of the game. “Lakatoš is a f**king gypsy!” the Kometa Brno fans chanted, and the local announcer for the match had to chastise them.
Team captain Lakatoš left the ice during the second third of the match after taking a hard shot to his leg. “As the captain, he kept his emotions under control. In a series where there was no shortage of skirmishes and minor scuffles, he was ejected only once. He encouraged his teammates, appreciated every good block or hit, and rose above the racist abuse from the stands. That’s good work even if it doesn’t involve scoring points,” Květoslav Šimek assessed Lakatoš’s performance throughout the series against the Kometa Brno side for the Sport daily.
This is not the first time Lakatoš has had to listen to racist insults in Brno – in 2019 he was playing in the semifinals of the series play-off for the Bílé tygry Liberec side when Kometa Brno fans chanted the same insult. Their club was then fined CZK 30,000 [EUR 1,275].
This year, the Vítkovice players won the sixth quarter-final of the extraliga play-offs in Brno 4:3 in overtime and won the series 4:2. For the first time in history, they beat Kometa Brno in the knockout rounds on their third attempt.
Vítkovice has now fought their way back into contention for medals after a 12-year drought – the last time they were in contention, they finished second in 2011. After that they fell out of contention six successive times in the quarter-finals.
