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Chelsea take action over Enzo Fernandez and alleged racist chant sung about France’s players

Chelsea take action over Enzo Fernandez and the alleged racist chant sung by some Argentina players about France’s players.

The Premier League club have condemned all forms of discriminatory behaviour after becoming aware of an incident where their player Enzo Fernandez had posted a video on social media of an alleged racist chant being sung.

He posted a video after Argentina’s Copa America final victory on Sunday with several members of the national team heard signing it.

This led to Fernandez’s Chelsea teammate Wesley Fofana, a France international, calling it “uninhibited racism”.

He’s unfollowed Fernandez on social media, as has the rest of Chelsea’s French contingent Axel Disassi, Benoit Badiashille, Malo Gusto, Lesley Ugochukwu, Christopher Nkunku and Malang Sarr.

Chelsea have now begun internal disciplinary proceedings against Enzo with the French Football Federation hitting out at the “racist and discriminatory” language used.

The song included the words: “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 song also had a derogatory reference to Kylian Mbappe’s association with transgender model Ines Rau.

On Tuesday, the French Football Federation said they would be making a complaint to world governing body Fifa over the video.

They said: The president of the French Football Federation, Philippe Diallo, strongly condemns the unacceptable racist and discriminatory comments made against the players of the French team as part of a song sung by players and supporters of the Argentine team after his victory in Copa America and broadcast in a video on social networks.

“Faced with the seriousness of these shocking remarks, contrary to the values of sport and human rights, the president of the FFF decided to directly challenge his Argentine counterpart and FIFA and to file a lawsuit for abusive remarks of a racial and discriminatory nature.” >Fernandez has now made a public apology, saying he is “truly sorry” for the video he put online.

“The song includes highly offensive language and there is absolutely no excuse for these words,” he said.

“I stand against discrimination in all forms and apologise for getting caught up in the euphoria of our Copa America celebrations.

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

The club said in a statement: “Chelsea Football Club finds all forms of discriminatory behaviour completely unacceptable.

“We are proud to be a diverse, inclusive club where people from all cultures, communities and identities feel welcome.

“We acknowledge and appreciate our player’s public apology and will use this as an opportunity to educate.

“The Club has instigated an internal disciplinary procedure.”

This is how fans reacted on Twitter with Chelsea to investigate Enzo Fernandez’s ‘sick chant’ after being slammed by Wesley Fofana…

@ChelseaIoanArmy: Heart is heavy with all this. Hope Enzo is truly apologetic and that the French boys can forgive him. 💙

@jdickenson1990: Apology is not good enough ban him for 3 Chelsea PL games now.

@bradleycoombes7: Grovelling apology.. fuck off. This dick needs to do one #CopaAmerica2024 #EnzoFernandez #NoRoomForRacism

@CFCPys: Hopefully we can all move on from this now – The club have said they will use this as an opportunity to educate and also that they will internally discipline, which will likely be a fine. The player has also apologised, let’s now keep the positivity within the current squad ahead of the new season 🙏 💙

@Jane_Basham: When a footballer apologises & blames ‘euphoria’ for his racism 🙄

@ChelseaHQ_:
“Please release statement that you’ll investigate”
*releases said statement*
“NOT GOOD ENOUGH🤬”
What more do you want? They’re investigating. They’ll hardly say much more whilst investigation goes on…

@LUHGRYAN: The euphoria of winning the copa America just made me racist, I’m sorry 🙊🙄

@ChiefPunter: It’s 2024 and people still think they can “I’m sorry I got too excited” their way out of being racist. Argentina’s history from the 18th century till today shows us who they truly are as a society, you can’t I’m sorry you’re way out of that. Throw that Enzo apology in the bin.

@LeeNoble20: Load of bollocks. If you know every word to the song and in a “moment of celebration” is the one you choose to sing then that says a lot about your underlying character. Apology would be more believable if he’d committed to education on the matter. Expect same from other players

@CFCWiz21: My club 💙 let’s see if the other teams do the same to their players and their players apologies for that

@CJHCFC1994: I only care that Fofana and the other French players offended by his video forgive him, hopefully they can. I couldn’t care less about any so called “fans” to forgive him or not quite frankly. He has apologised and will learn from this, this is all we can ask for. 👍

@sixtythreeCFC: People in the comments like “is that it?” “i expected more“, I‘m sorry but what exactly were you waiting for? They are still INVESTIGATING and considering further actions. Christ this fanbase is stupid

@tovers98: Sure this process will be principled, robust and fair. Appreciate you for putting this statement out so quickly.

@TelegraphDucker: On Enzo Fernandez, he says he stands against all forms of discrimination but you don’t instantly happen to know all the words to that song, you’d have to learn them to be able to belt it out word for word that enthusiastically. Which, I think, tells you plenty

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