Liverpool youth players walk off pitch and refuse to play after alleged 'racist remark'

Liverpool's U19 players walked off the pitch and refused to play the remainder of their match against Eintracht Frankfurt after one of its squad members was subject to alleged racist abuse.

The match was ultimately abandoned following the incident that took place in Germany as part of a pre-season tournament, with the score heading for a 1-1 draw.

Eintracht Frankfurt NLZ (youth performance center) announced via their X account that the end result was to be changed to a 3-0 victory for Frankfurt U19s.

According to German outlet BILD , Liverpool's youth players stormed off the pitch in protest and refused to come back out the tunnel as a result of the alleged racist remark.

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However, following the distasteful scenes, Frankfurt Sporting Director Timmo Hardung said the incident was a "misunderstanding" and that Frankfurt aims to resolve the situation among the players.

Speaking BILD, he said: “We can rule out racism, it is a linguistic issue and therefore hope to have also resolved the misunderstanding among the relevant players and those responsible for Liverpool FC .

“Our entire NLZ is like Eintracht Frankfurt, multicultural and we have clear values that we live by and constantly demand."

Hardung said the accused Frankfurt player had actually used the slang term "digga", which has a similar meaning to "brother" or "dude".

He explained: "After consultation, our player confirmed that he had used the word 'digga', which is common in youth slang, in the course of a normal game.

"We have no doubt that this statement is correct. We can rule out racism. It is a linguistic issue and we therefore hope that we have also cleared up the misunderstanding with the players concerned and those responsible at Liverpool."