White coach apologizes to Nigerian striker Blessing Eleke after racially abusing him as “a black idiot”

Marko Nikolac, the head coach of Slovenian
league leaders Olimpija, has apologized to
Nigerian striker Blessing Eleke for fear of losing
his job after he racially abused him, calling him
“a black idiot”. Blessing was called a 'black idiot'
by his own coach in Slovenia for wildly
celebrating an equalizer.
Marko Nikolac said his remarks about Eleke
were not racist as he only wanted his team to
conserve time and try to score a winning goal as
they aim to reach the championship playoffs, so
he was very angry when he saw Eleke 'over
celebrating' after the Nigerian scored a leveler
for Olimpija on Sunday.
“I wish to apologise to the to everyone -
the President, the Sports Director,
Blessing Eleke and finally all fans of
Olimpija for an inadvertent remark, which
when heard again on television later
sounded very distasteful and worthy of
condemnation,” said the young coach.
“My only wish was that after the
equaliser on 92 minutes, we should try to
get the winning goal. My target is to
reach the national championship playoffs
and go on to win the championship. I
would like to thank all the team for
understanding that my remarks were not
meant to be racist."
The club president Milan Mandaric said;
“The remarks of our coach were not
racially motivated. He just wanted to win
the game,” he defended. We are all
focused on qualifying for the
championship playoffs and going on to
win the league.”