The NRL has denied allegations that NSW Roosters captain James Tedesco directed a derogatory comment toward a woman in Bondi late last week.
The allegations first surfaced on social media after a woman claimed that Tedesco had yelled “squid games” at her sister outside The Beach Road Hotel in Bondi last week.
Following the social media post, the woman involved in the incident, 20-year-old Tiffany Trinh, who is of Vietnamese descent, told the Sydney Morning Herald she would launch a formal complaint to the NRL over the incident.
Trinh alleged that she was waiting for a lift outside Beach Road when Tedesco directed the “squid games” comment at her. She details that the friend accompanying her confronted Tedesco about the comment, and alleges that he laughed before asking “Do you know who I am?”
“It was a group of about ten footy boys, and I was pretty intimidated. It felt pretty bad being laughed at,” Trinh told SMH. “A 20-year-old tiny girl, waiting for a lift home and you have a bunch of guys come up to you and laugh at you for being Asian.
“It was definitely him, no doubt, and the comment was undeniably directed at me, the intent was clear.”
Trinh acknowledged that she initially laughed the encounter off, but her friends and sisters encouraged her to treat the alleged incident seriously. “All the fans idolise him, have posters of him. You can’t just let that slide,” she said.
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Tiffany’s sister, Katherine Trinh, directed an open letter to Tedesco on Instagram last Thursday, detailing Tiffany’s story, and condemning Tedesco’s actions as “micro-aggressions that keep racism alive in Australia.”
“My dad used to tell stories of the racism he faced when he first moved here 30 years ago, my sisters and I can all recount racism we suffered throughout school, and now one of them can remember when an entitled footy player was racist to her just last night,” she wrote in the letter.
“A quick Google shows you are quite the footy player and even represented our home state! No doubt, you are a role model to many. As such, you need to be held accountable for your words and actions. Do better.”
The Roosters captain reportedly told the club that he did not direct any racially-tinged comments towards Trinh, and was discussing the hit Netflix show with the group he was with. A claim he repeated during a meeting with NRL integrity unit chief Karyn Murphy on Monday.
