A FORMER NHL player was left asking why a crowd of over 1,000 failed to intervene when a player was racially abused on Saturday night during a Quebec-based semi-professional hockey league game.

The match between Jonquiere Marquis and the home team St Jerome Petroliers du Nord descended into a vile event when Marquis player Jonathan-Ismael Diaby and his family members were racially and physically abused.

The abuse was so bad that Diaby left the ice rink during the second period.