BRUSSELS (AP) - Belgian league club Beerschot formally apologized to Japan’s Eija Kawashima on Tuesday after some of its fans taunted the international goalkeeper with jeers of “Fukushima, Fukushima” during a match.
The referee interrupted the game against Lierse last month until the taunts stopped about Japan’s nuclear power plant disaster.
When the goalie went to confront the fans when the taunting started, he was pelted with coins and beer. The club was fined $34,200 for the disruption.
Kawashima said the apology would mean a lot to the Japanese people.
The March 11 earthquake and tsunami wiped out entire towns. The waves inundated the Fukushima plant, triggering the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.Some 20,000 people are dead or missing.
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