Enzo Fernandez apologises for posting alleged racist chant as Chelsea & France FA look to take action

The final celebration has caused a rift between the two national football teams.

Argentina’s Copa America 2024 trophy celebrations have led to the outbreak of a major controversy after a video posted on midfielder Enzo Fernandez’s Instagram showed him and his Argentina teammates singing an alleged ‘racist’ song directed towards the members of the France national team.

Following Argentina’s hard-fought 1-0 win over Colombia in the Copa America final, the players were seen celebrating on the team bus by singing a derogatory song that targeted those French players who had their family roots across various African nations, but were classified as French citizens by birth or naturalization.

The lyrics to the song were, “They play for France, but their parents are from Angola. Their mother is from Cameroon, while their father is from Nigeria. But, their passport says French.”

In the aftermath of the incident, Enzo Fernandez’s club Chelsea have instigated an internal disciplinary procedure regarding the controversial video involving their player.

According to multiple reports, all of Chelsea’s French internationals, including Malang Sarr, Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashille, Lesley Ugochukwu, Christopher Nkunku, Axel Disassi and Malo Gusto, have already unfollowed their teammate Enzo Fernandez on social media. Wesley Fofana condemned the content of the video, stating on platform X: “Le football en 2024: racisme decomplexe,” which translates to: “Football in 2024: uninhibited racism.”

This was followed by a strong statement from the French Football Federation’s president, Philippe Diallo, who termed the actions of the Argentine players as unacceptable and discriminatory towards the players of the France national team. The France FA also confirmed that they will be filing an official complaint with FIFA for the “racially offensive and discriminatory remarks.”

In response to the severe backlash to the contentious clip, Enzo Fernandez finally released an official statement to apologize: “I want to apologize sincerely for a video posted on my Instagram channel during national team celebrations.”

“The song there includes highly offensive language and there’s absolutely no excuse for negative words.”

“I stand against discrimination in all forms, apologise for getting caught up in euphoria of our celebrations.”

“That video, that moment, those words, do not reflect my beliefs or my character.”

“I am truly sorry.”

The Argentine Football Association are yet to officially comment on the matter, with a potential decision from FIFA in the upcoming days being a strong possibility owing to the seriousness of the issue.

The tension between the players of both Argentina and France have been sky-high ever since their 2022 FIFA World Cup final meeting in Qatar, where Argentina were ultimately crowned champions after winning 4-2 in a penalty shootouts (3-3 after extra-time).

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