Argentine midfielder Rodrigo De Paul expressed his support for his teammate Enzo Fernández on Thursday amid controversy over a video he shared. The Argentine players were seen making reference to the French national team with a chant that was denounced as racist.
“What I can say in Enzo’s defense is that the song exists because it was there, because people sing it,” De Paul told local streaming channel Olga. “You don’t analyze the cheering song so much, you do it more in relation to a joke,” he added.
The Atlético de Madrid midfielder stressed that he can “understand people who have suffered racism and don’t like it”, but criticized the attitude of Fernández’s teammates at English club Chelsea, who unfollowed him on Instagram as a way of repudiating him: “It’s like making firewood from a tree that fell,” he added.
Since Monday, a video has been circulating on social media in which several Argentine players appear on the national team bus on Sunday in Miami, after the victory over Colombia in the final of the America Cup 1-0, initiating a corner against the French, before the broadcast was interrupted.
🔥CHAMPIONS AGAIN!!🔥
The Cup stays at home 🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/IrlUCApOCr
— 🇦🇷 Argentina National Team ⭐⭐⭐ (@Argentina) July 15, 2024
In the full song, which went viral during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, sung by a group of Argentine fans, phrases such as “they play in France, but they are all from Angola” are sung, and about Kylian Mbappé it is said that “his mother is Nigerian [na verdade é franco-argelina]his father is Cameroonian, but in the document he has French nationality”.
French Football Federation (FFF) president Philippe Diallo on Tuesday condemned the content of the chant, which he described as “racist and discriminatory”.
But on Wednesday, Argentine Vice President Victoria Villarruel backed Enzo Fernández: “No colonialist country is going to intimidate us for a song from the stands or for telling the truths they don’t want to admit.” […] Enzo (Fernández), I support you,” she wrote.
On the same Wednesday, the Argentine government fired the Undersecretary of Sports Julio Garro, who, previously, in an interview with a radio station, had spoken out in favor of Lionel Messi and the president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), Claudio Tapia, apologizing for the incident.
FIFA announced on Wednesday that it had opened an investigation into the chant and condemned “all forms of discrimination”. The incident also prompted Chelsea to open disciplinary proceedings against Fernandez.
Enzo Fernández recorded and posted the video on his Instagram account, a social network where he apologized for the events on Tuesday night.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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