Soccer-Ecuador striker Caicedo accuses restaurant of racism

QUITO, June 25 (Reuters) - Ecuador striker Felipe Caicedo has issued a writ against restaurant owners in his home country alleging racism after he was taken for a delinquent, local TV reported on Thursday.

The black Manchester City player, on holiday in the Pacific port city of Guayaquil with family and friends during the English off-season, was searched and asked to identify himself by police officers called to El Porton restaurant by the owners.

"If he'd been blond, white, with blues eyes...they'd have said what a fine businessman," Caicedo's lawyer Luz Maria Pico told Ecuavisa TV channel. "They made him raise his arms, they frisked him and treated him like a delinquent."

In a socialist constitution passed recently in Ecuador, racial hatred is punishable by up to three years in prison.

The restaurant management justified calling the police at the behest of a worried client owing to increased delinquency in Guayaquil in recent weeks. (Reporting by Alexandra Valencia, editing by Alison Wildey; to query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)