Chelsea has opened an investigation into footage captured by Enzo Fernandez , which is threatening to fracture the roster of the Premier League giant.
The Argentina soccer players were celebrating when Chelsea star Fernandez began filming live on Instagram. The start of his stream coincided with him and his teammates allegedly singing the first two lines of an racist and transphobic chant.
The chant begins: "On passport, French nationality, listen, spread the word, they play in France, but they are all…", before someone is heard saying "cut the video". It is unclear whether the players continued singing the chant.
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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."
And his club teammate Wesley Fofana, who has two senior caps for Les Bleus, has now blasted Fernandez and his Argentina allies. He posted the video on X and on his Instagram story with the caption: " Football in 2024: uninhibited racism."
The defender, along with teammates Axel Diasi and Malo Gusto, also appear to have unfollowed Fernandez on Instagram. the Daily Mirror has contacted Chelsea for comment but reports have indicated an investigation is now underway, with the Blues treating it as a serious matter.
The chanting appears to be a call-back to the 2022 World Cup final, in which Argentina beat France on penalties. During that tournament, some Argentine fans began singing the chant, referencing how many France players were of African heritage and were first or second-generation immigrants in the nation.
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The footage has also infuriated the French FA, who have launched a legal complaint. The organization's president, Philippe Diallo, has challenged his FIFA and Argentinian Football Association counterparts to respond to the footage.
"The president of the French Football Federation, Philippe Diallo, condemns in the strongest terms the unacceptable racist and discriminatory remarks which were made against the players of the French team in the context of a song sung by players and supporters of the Argentina team after its victory in the Copa America and broadcast in a video on social media," an FFF statement read.
"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 legal complaint for insulting remarks of a racial and discriminatory nature."
Anti-racism association SOS Racisme have added also condemned the footage, having previously labelled the an "expression of a far-right ideology". The group has also demanded that 'strict measures' be taken against the Argentina players for their behaviour.
A statement read: "We condemn these intolerable comments in the strongest possible terms. Racism has absolutely no place in sport, or in any other sphere of society. We demand that strict measures be taken against this deplorable behaviour."
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