December 21 – French football authorities have condemned online racist abuse directed towards some of the country’s players after they were targeted in the wake of the penalty shootout loss to Argentina in Sunday’s World Cup final.
The French federation said some players were hit by “unacceptable racist and hateful comments on social networks” and that it planned to file a complaint against those responsible.
“The French soccer federation condemns with the utmost firmness these intolerable abuses,” it said in a statement.
Both Kingsley Coman and Aurelien Tchouameni were subjected to racist abuse online after they failed to score from the spot as France just missed out on retaining the trophy they won in Russia in 2018.
Coman’s club, Bayern Munich, rallied round the winger as did French sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera who tweeted her support to Coman and all those targeted, saying the comments “have no place in soccer or anywhere else.”
Anti-racism group SOS Racisme said some players had to disable comments on their Instagram accounts because of “a torrent of racist slurs, with hundreds of users on the social network posting comments likening them to apes, slaves, or even urging them to go back to the jungle.”
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