LETTER: Keep soccer prejuice-free

Editor,

I began watching soccer in 1994, and ever since I have fallen in love with the beauty of the game. I find extraordinary the players’ ability to manage the ball with their feet, chest, knees, and heads. For me soccer is more than a sport; it is art.

For this reason I was very happy to hear about the soccer intramurals on campus, where the students’ love for the game could be shared in competitions, where students from different parts of the world could come together and form a team. But after assisting the soccer intramurals as a spectator for a yea,r I have been very disappointed. The beauty of the game was destroyed by the frustration of the international students due to discriminatory rulings of the referees.

In their rulings, the referees take sides toward teams formed only by Americans, and even the Americans who are part of the international teams feel the discrimination towards their team. It is a shame that international teams formed by Africans, Americans, Mexicans, Dominicans, Koreans, Ecuadorians and Hondurans, who bring diversity to our campus, have to feel discouraged and unwanted by the unfair referee practices.

It is a shame that these international students have to go on the field to play the game they love, knowing that the outcome of the game does not depend on their effort and heart they put on the game but on referees like or dislike towards diversity.

So the question I have for all of us who form the USU team is: Do we encourage or do we not welcome diversity to our team?

Laura Encarnacion