Lionel Messi urged to apologise over Enzo Fernandez ra*ist video by Argentine government

A member of Argentina’s government has urged Lionel Messi to issue an apology after Enzo Fernandez’s video caught players from the national side singing a racist song after their Copa America win at the weekend. Chelsea have have opened an ‘internal disciplinary procedure’ after Fernandez filmed his Argentina teammates singing a racist song about France’s national side.

Argentina’s players were celebrating their 1-0 win against Colombia in the Copa America final on Sunday when Fernandez began to broadcast a live video from the team bus on Instagram. During Fernandez’s broadcast, Argentina’s players could be heard singing the first two lines of the song, ‘on passport, French nationality, listen, spread the word, they play in France, but they are all…’, before someone is heard saying, ‘cut the video’.

The racist and transphobic chant, which was first sung by Argentina supporters during the 2022 World Cup, claims that France’s players are ‘all from Angola’ and makes a vile reference to a reported relationship between Kylian Mbappe and transgender model Ines Rau.

The full lyrics to the song are: ‘Listen, spread the word, they play in France, but they are all from Angola, they are going to run well, they like to sleep with trans people, their mum is Nigerian, their dad is Cameroonian, but on the passport it says: French.’

Fernandez has issued a public apology, while it’s understood that he has also privately apologised to Chelsea’s squad. The 23-year-old plays alongside several black French teammates at Chelsea including Benoit Badiashile, Axel Disasi, Wesley Fofana, Malo Gusto, Christopher Nkunku and Lesley Ugochukwu. On Tuesday evening, Fofana hit out at Fernandez as he shared the video on X with the caption : ‘Football in 2024: uninhibited racism.’

Messi, meanwhile, captained Argentina to victory at the Copa America but was not on the team bus when the song was sung as he stayed behind in Miami to receive treatment on the ankle injury he suffered during the win against Colombia. However, Julio Garro, who is the Undersecretary of Sports for Argentina, believes Messi and the president of Argentina’s Football Association (AFA), Claudio Tapia, should also apologise for the racist video.

‘I think that the captain of the national team should come out and apologise for the situation, the same as the president of the AFA, I think it is appropriate,’ Garro said in a radio interview with Maria O’Donnell on Urbana Play. ‘It is something that leaves us as a country in a bad position, with so much glory, but being able to take this to an exemplary level is something very good, and it is done a lot in our country and in the world.’

Garro also admitted that Argentine football is ‘lax’ when dealing with discrimination in sport. ‘It happens more in social life, in schools, in clubs, but it has not reached big football,’ he said. ‘I think that in the face of this mistake, it is an opportunity for society to see that football can ask for forgiveness.’

After receiving a wave of backlash on social media for his comments, Garro, whose interview was published on video by Urbana Play, then denied claiming that he asked Messi to issue an apology. ‘I categorically deny that I have asked Messi to apologise,’ he wrote on X. ‘It would be disrespectful to someone who constantly honours us with his human and sporting qualities.’