Argentina’s Football Team Was Caught Chanting A Racist Song Against France’s Team, Causing A Controversy
“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.”
The Argentinian football team is being investigated by the French Football Federation and Chelsea Football Club after being caught chanting racist and transphobic slurs on video.
Enzo Fernandez, Argentine and Chelsea midfielder, is under fire for chanting discriminatory and racist language towards the French football squad.
In an Instagram live by Enzo Fernandez after Argentina won the Copa America Cup against Colombia on Monday, July 15, the Argentine squad are seen singing and chanting celebratory songs before shifting to songs directed at the French football team.
The chant singles out the French national players with African ethnic backgrounds.
The lyrics the players sang 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.”
The original song also includes a transphobic line directed at French forward Kylian Mbappe, who reportedly dated a trans woman model.
“They like trans people like [Kylian] Mbappe,” the line goes.
In the video, Fernandez swiftly cuts the live when a player next to him says to stop live streaming.
The video sparked a controversy, and the French Football Federation decided to contact FIFA to directly file a legal complaint for “racist and discriminatory remarks.”
The Chelsea Football Club has also released a statement acknowledging the discriminatory behavior and deeming it “unacceptable”.’
It said it is instigating an internal disciplinary procedure.
Fernandez has since apologized via Instagram Stories, saying that “there is absolutely no excuse” and he was “caught up in the euphoria” of the Copa America celebrations.
However, Argentina’s Vice President Victoria Villarruel defended him and the team on X, formerly Twitter.
“No colonialist country is going to intimidate us for a song on the pitch for telling the truths they do not want to admit” she wrote. “Enzo, I support you.”
Chelsea’s squad consists of seven French national players of African heritage, and all of them have unfollowed Fernandez since the video came to light.
Wesley Fofana, Chelsea’s defender, shared the video on social media, describing it as “uninhibited racism.”
“Racism in all its forms should be condemned in the strongest possible terms,” David Datro Fofana, another of Fernandez’s Chelsea team mate who is of Ivorian descent, said.
The last time Argentina and France faced each other was in the Qatar World Cup final in 2022, which caused fans to be confused as to why Argentina mentioned France in its celebrations after they won against Colombia.
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Wendy Chuang
Kassy Cho
