2024-07-17 11:15:52
On Sunday, Argentina won the Copa América. A video of the team celebrating has now sparked a racism debate, including a lawsuit.
The French Football Federation wants to file a complaint against the Argentinean association after a video of the Argentine national team appeared online in which the team sings a racist song about the French national team.
The video is a live stream from Argentinian midfielder Enzo Fernández of Chelsea FC, showing the players celebrating on the team bus after their 1-0 victory in the Copa America final against Colombia. When the team sings the controversial song, the video stops after a while. The song is probably from the 2022 World Cup final, in which Argentina defeated the French national team on penalties.
The lyrics of the song portray the French national team players as, among other things, “all from Angola” or as the children of a Nigerian mother and a father from Cameroon, and contain crude allusions to the sexuality of French superstar Kylian Mbappé. Fernández’s clip shows the team singing at least the “Angola” part before it breaks off.
A statement from the French Football Federation (FFF) said: “The President of the French Football Federation, Philippe Diallo, condemns in the strongest possible terms the unacceptable racist and discriminatory remarks made against the players of the French team in the context of a song sung by players and supporters of the Argentinian team after their victory in the Copa América and shared in a video on social media.” It continued: “Given the seriousness of these shocking remarks, which violate the values of sport and human rights, the President of the FFF decided to address his Argentinian counterpart and FIFA directly to file a complaint for offensive, racist and discriminatory remarks.”
Fernández’s French Chelsea teammate Wesley Fofana shared the video on the X platform and wrote: “Football in 2024: unbridled racism.” Chelsea FC, for its part, announced an investigation into the incident.