Argentina just claimed a third major international tournament title in a row, but instead of the team’s dominant play on the pitch, discussions have swirled around a post-championship celebration that included a tone deaf chant about the French national team.
It was a near perfect 2024 Copa America campaign for Argentina. In what could’ve very well been Lionel Messi’s last run in an Argentina shirt, La Albiceleste won all six of their matches en route to their third straight major title.
However, in the days after the final when the football world should be looking back fondly at their brilliant tournament, the discussion has been largely around a video that was seen on social media during Argentina’s celebrations.
Chelsea star midfielder Enzo Fernandez shared a now-viral live video on Instagram that included the Argentine players singing an infamous chant about French national team players who are of African descent. First heard in Qatar at the 2022 World Cup, the chant includes claims of French players being “all from Angola” and having French passports despite their parents being from various African countries.
Fans singing the chant is shocking enough, but for players to have been enthusiastically belting out the discriminatory lyrics is an even more blatant slap to the face.
In the immediate aftermath, Fernandez’s own Chelsea teammate and French international Wesley Fofana quoted the post on X with the caption “uninhibited racism.” This was swiftly followed by Fofana, Malo Gusto, and several other Chelsea players unfollowing Fernandez on social media, signaling their displeasure at his actions.
Le football en 2024 : racisme décomplexé 🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️ pic.twitter.com/MGkH5wPmNU
— Wesley Fofana (@Wesley_Fofana3) July 16, 2024
The discourse on social media has been interesting, to say the least, with sections of Chelsea fans on X divided on the handling of this situation. On one hand, there are the opinions that Fernandez should take responsibility and face repercussions, but there’s a worrying amount of people who lament the fact that his teammates called him out. Similarly, some of Fernandez’s national teammates were quick to come to his defense.
Liverpool’s Alexis Mac Allister remarked: “Enzo has already apologized, and he explained what happened. There’s nothing more to add. We know Enzo, we know he would never do it with bad intention. It’s more of a chant that stuck and it’s more in a mocking tone than anything else. The most important thing is that Enzo apologized and we have to give value to that.”
La FFF apporte tout son soutien à Wesley Fofana et Jules Koundé, cible de messages racistes intolérables sur les réseaux sociaux.
Ces propos condamnables vont à l'encontre des valeurs du football, du sport, des droits humains qui nous rassemblent.#FiersdetreBleus pic.twitter.com/hi6eDC4CCs
— Equipe de France ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) July 18, 2024
FIFA has since launched an investigation into the matter, the outcome of which has yet to be revealed. Additionally, the French federation filed a complaint over the song by Argentina players, citing it as racist and discriminatory.
Rivalries in football can often reach unsavory points where fans and players of teams say or do things that they come to regret. In moments of high emotion or high tension, insults get hurled, violence may ensue, and things get ugly fast.
But this moment was different. Argentina players weren’t in the midst of a hellacious battle with historic rivals. The match was over, and they were well into their celebrations. Most damning is the fact that the team they were chanting about was not even the one they played. It’s been almost two years since the nations last met, so it remains bizarre that they would use this opportunity to attack Les Blues.
The rivalry between these two nations has been brewing for quite some time. At the 2018 World Cup, both sides matched up in a fierce round of 16 match that saw France come out on top on its way to a second World Cup title. In the aftermath of the win against Argentina, the famous French celebration song made mention of N’Golo Kanté’s individual performance against Messi. Fans and players of La Albiceleste didn’t take kindly to this, and they’d get their revenge in the now legendary 2022 World Cup Final.
No matter how bitter the rivalry is between Argentina and France, there is no justification or excuse for the actions of the Argentinian national team in the video. The more worrying matter in the grand scheme of things is that many people were not surprised.
Argentina has had a long and unfortunate history of racial issues, and in recent years we’ve seen several instances of fans pulling racist gestures or chants. One of the most recent that springs to mind was the case of three Boca Juniors fans being jailed for monkey gestures in a 0-0 draw away to Brazil’s Corinthians in the 2022 Copa Libertadores.
Argentina’s Vice President Victoria Villarruel gave a statement after the Fernandez fiasco that can give us a bit more insight into the Argentine point of view on these issues.
“No colonialist country is going to intimidate us for a song on the pitch or for telling the truths they don’t want to admit,” Villarruel said. “Argentina is a sovereign and free country. We never had colonies or second-class citizens. We have never imposed our way of life on anyone, but neither will we tolerate that they do it to us…Enzo I support you.”
To make matters worse, Argentina’s undersecretary of sport was recently fired after calling for Messi to apologize for the racist and transphobic song. Not exactly sending the best message there.
This affirms that at the highest level, the view on the action by Fernandez and the Argentine squad is skewed. Argentinians seem to be desensitized to the point that they fail to recognize the insensitivity in their actions. This continues to be a running theme when we see acts of blatant racism and discrimination, not just in Argentina, but all across the beautiful game.
I doubt there will be heavy action taken against Fernandez and the rest of the Argentina team, but I believe there should be. This entire saga has left a massive black mark on what should have been a proud moment for a great footballing nation. Instead, it has reaffirmed that there remains much to be done in the battle against racism and discrimination in and beyond the world of football.
