INGOLSTADT, Germany – Ingolstadt forward Daniel Pietta is being investigated after being accused of making a racist gesture following an argument with a Black opponent during a game, the German hockey league said Monday.
Pietta, who is German, admitted that he mimicked a monkey with his arms during an exhibition game on Sunday against the Straubing Tigers. Pietta had reportedly been in a confrontation on the ice with Straubing defenceman Sena Acolatse, an American who is Black.
The league said the incident was being investigated as “unsporting behaviour toward the player Sena Acolatse.”
In a statement on the Ingolstadt website addressed to Acolatse and fans, Pietta said he did not intend the gesture as racist and that he had been trying to indicate that the entire Straubing team was behaving foolishly.
“I would like to ask for forgiveness from everyone who I have hurt in this way and who suffer from racism every day, and most of all from Sena Acolatse himself,“ Pietta wrote.
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