Serbian Libero Djurdjevic Sanja Apologizes for Her Gesture

In the match Thailand vs Serbia on week 2 of VNL 2021, Serbian libero Djurdjevic Sanja was spotted making a “slanty-eyes” gesture which raised controversy.

This has caused criticism towards the player, including over 15,000 comments on her Instagram post, most of which accuses the player of being racist and many commented “#stopasianhate”. Some fans have also demanded action from FIVB under the comment section after the organization posted the highlight of the match.

After the match, Thailand player Pleumjit Thinkaow made a post on Instagram regarding the incident, telling the fans that Sanja has apologized to them and that her gesture was not intentional.

The player has also posted on Instagram regarding the incident, which read the follow:

“I am aware of my mistake and I immediately after the match apologized to the whole Thailand team. 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. Of course, it was unfortunate and not so smart gesture from my side.
I want to apologize one more time to all people all over the world who are offended by this.
Big thanks to the Thailand team for understanding.”

The Volleyball Federation of Serbia has also apologized via social media platform. In the apology, the federation called the incident “a simple misunderstanding” and tell everyone “don’t blow this out of proportion”.

It is worth noting that the during the 2017 Women’s European Volleyball Championship, the Serbian volleyball team took a photo with players pulling back their eyes after they won the competition and earned a spot in the 2018 FIVB Women’s World Championship in Japan, seemingly as a gesture about the championship being in Japan. The photo first appeared in FIVB’s website but has since been removed.

(Featured image source: FIVB)

(Written by Boris CHUNG Bok Man)