8. Enzo Fernandez

[TheHulk 1,855]

 

[YorkshireBlue 3,122]

1 hour ago, TheHulk said:

 

Ah yes, another Argentine opinion.... Doesn't mean a thing.

[Thor 2,392]

Looking at the Sam Kerr situation (which was worse actually) and now the Enzo thing - its clearly put out the message that if you're good enough - it really doesn't matter. 

 

Crazy to see the people supporting their views on social media.

[generaldane 64]

2 hours ago, Thor said:

Looking at the Sam Kerr situation (which was worse actually) and now the Enzo thing - its clearly put out the message that if you're good enough - it really doesn't matter. 

 

Crazy to see the people supporting their views on social media.

I'm not really surprised to be honest, I had some guy on YouTube telling me the black English players weren't actually English and shouldn't be playing for the team and as I have mentioned in this thread before a friend of mine is teaching in Argentina and bro have very little good to say about how he's been treated there

Edited July 19 by generaldane

[Vesper 28,801]

8 hours ago, TheHulk said:

 

He needs to look at what hus President and Vice President are saying and doing. The Argies are a shitshow atm. It saddens me to see such racist shitbaggery coming from the leaders of the nation.

Such a shame what Spain and Portugal did to South and Central America plus Mexico.

The British and French did a shit tonne of damage to North America, and dog knows systemic racism is alive and well there, but nothing like Central and South America  under tge Spanish and Portuguese models and their incredible poverty and socio-economic stratification.

Of course, the US helped to keep that oppressive model in place down there (United Fruit Company/CIA actions and the CIA murder coup of Salvador Allende in Chile to name just 2 examples), so shame on them as well.

 

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,919]

13 hours ago, TheHulk said:

He is employed by Chelsea, should think about Chelsea as well before doing something, his post only put more gas on fire especially someone like him who hasn't contributed to shit for this club. Gusto and the rest said nothing, despite most likely being just as angry as well.

Gusto said nothing, and Argentines are still all over his social media being racist.

 

You cant be Neville and try to appease those cretins because it only empowers them. You have to literally call them out vocally.

[Mhsc 876]

Part me of thinks an Enzo ban will be doing Maresca a favour in terms of team selections. That midfield group is way more manageable if you take 1 big name out of it.

[bluesman2610 1,341]

2 hours ago, Mhsc said:

Part me of thinks an Enzo ban will be doing Maresca a favour in terms of team selections. That midfield group is way more manageable if you take 1 big name out of it.

I actually had the same thought barring another injury crisis

[whats happening 1,525]

Chelsea FC star Enzo Fernandez has been found guilty of failing to identify the driver of a Porsche which allegedly ran a red light in Carmarthenshire.

 

 

haha

 

[bluesman2610 1,341]

He's going to ask to be sold soon

 

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,919]

12 minutes ago, bluesman2610 said:

He's going to ask to be sold soon

 

An 100 million+ player who plays like shit most of the time and goes missing....

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

20 hours ago, Nero said:

What the hell is wrong with him? I'm poc too and very angry on this guy.

He can't stay fit for more than 3 games but tries to destroy the team. 

Jesus grow up. He didn’t try to destroy anything. Swear some of you are fucking clueless. 

19 hours ago, TheHulk said:

He is employed by Chelsea, should think about Chelsea as well before doing something, his post only put more gas on fire especially someone like him who hasn't contributed to shit for this club. Gusto and the rest said nothing, despite most likely being just as angry as well.

Oh FFS you again with more bullshit. Theres a surprise.

Calling out racism/bigotry/homophobia etc is much much bigger than the club is or ever will be. Or the sport as a whole itself. Everyone’s entitled to their stance and if Fofana wants to put it on social media and call it out why shouldn’t he? Fair play to him, call it as you see it. If people don’t speak up and pretend as if everything is ok, nothing will change. Change doesn’t happen behind closed doors. Look at the media frenzy this has caused and the pressure that will be put on the clubs, FIFA, the FA etc to actually do something meaningful to try prevent this level of moronic and racist shit happening again. In this day and age you get what you deserve. 

And anyway, if Fofana should be thinking of Chelsea whilst calling it out, shouldn’t Enzo be thinking of Chelsea before even chanting such a chant and plastering it on his social media to the millions of followers he will have? Your logic is beyond me, thicker than a submarine’s door. 

Edited July 19 by OneMoSalah

[Mhsc 876]

I actually find Fofana's response quite intelligent and fair. If he had gone on a full out, public scathing rant directed purely at Enzo, called him a bunch of names or whatever, then it might be a different matter. But he pointed out the situation as what it was: blatant, open racism from everyone on that bus.

He is right to be offended and perfectly within his rights to point it out in public, especially when the video itself was posted publicly in a celebratory / prideful way!

Enzo has created some job for himself to restore his reputation. I do feel like there is a path for him but it wont be easy. No doubt the sort of thing a PR specialist firm could help him with, just hope he doesn't use the fucking cunts that helped Money Mase ruin his reputation for life.

[robsblubot 3,504]

21 hours ago, YorkshireBlue said:

Might need some context to this as it is just a picture of fofana ....... 

He's standing and not on crutches -- context enough for you now? 😃

Seriously though, only one dumb ass was not thinking about his teammates and his club, and that was Enzo. I'd also give a shout-out to Argentina to not have anyone around to prevent that kinda of stupid behavior.

[DH1988 1,273]

On 18/07/2024 at 19:27, bluesman2610 said:

Shit take if the disrespect can happen in public so can the calling out of the disrespect. De Paul and you indicate that it is okay to do what they did in a public setting but calling them out should be done privately. Racist remarks should be condemned in a Public setting. So, the victims of the disrespect are told that they should get their apologies in private or not let their feelings be known as not being okay.

Complete cherry pick. My context, as per my previous post on the matter, was in reference to Fofana fanning the flame, receiving abuse and then having the media focus on that its all Chelsea fans. Call your team mate, he will publically apologise, he will privately apologise, both from backlash and more. Let their feelings be known? They are footballers in the spotlight, same as Enzo's debatable was just as stupid. The whole thing on all sides is stupid beyond measure.

[Vesper 28,801]

Chelsea and the Enzo Fernandez fallout: Anger, apologies and investigations

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5644814/2024/07/18/Chelsea-enzo-fernandez-song-fallout/

 

Enzo Fernandez is expected to join up with his Chelsea team-mates on the pre-season tour of the U.S. later this month — and only then will the club find out just how well the apology over his behaviour has been received.

New head coach Enzo Maresca has been working at the training ground for only a couple of weeks and is already having to cope with the first significant test of his man-management skills. Welcome to Chelsea, indeed.

As one source close to a senior player, speaking anonymously to The Athletic to protect relationships, explained, before Fernandez’s live stream, the start of Maresca’s regime could not have gone much better. Members of the squad who were not involved in the international tournaments began reporting for duty on July 4 and the feedback from the Italian’s sessions had been very positive. The mood has been good.

That is until Fernandez live-streamed a video of him and some of his Argentina teammates singing what the French Football Federation (FFF) has labelled a ‘racist and discriminatory song’ following Argentina’s Copa America final win over Colombia on Sunday night. The FFF says it plans to lodge a legal complaint with FIFA and understandably so. The lyrics are offensive, mocking the background of French players and with an element of transphobia for good measure too.

GO DEEPER

Football’s silence over Argentina’s racist chanting is deafening and damning

The clip went viral for all the wrong reasons and anger was not just expressed by the FFF. Fernandez’s actions were viewed by his Chelsea colleagues and the reaction was bad. “Many people were really angry,” one person close to a senior player says. “They were asking, ‘Why would he do that?’

“There has always been a strong togetherness in the squad and the club just needed the right coach to make it work. But this incident has changed that. It will be interesting to see what happens when Fernandez goes back to the club.” Another individual familiar with the team environment described the situation as being even more dire, that the camp had initially been “fractured”.

An indication of the upset caused came on Tuesday when Chelsea’s French players unfollowed Fernandez en masse on Instagram. One player, defender Wesley Fofana, then posted a clip of Fernandez’s video on X with the caption ‘Football in 2024: uninhibited racism’. Fofana’s account was then subject to a flood of racist abuse.

Chelsea promised to investigate the incident on Tuesday afternoon, part of which included establishing the video was genuine. Fernandez is on holiday post-Copa America so was not with the club (and therefore could not immediately be spoken to in person) but by late Tuesday night UK time, he issued a statement of contrition. “I want to apologise for a video posted on my Instagram channel during the national team celebrations,” he wrote.

“The song includes highly offensive language and there is absolutely no excuse for these words. I stand against discrimination in all forms and apologise for getting caught up in the euphoria of our Copa America celebrations. That video, that moment, those words, do not reflect my beliefs or my character. I am truly sorry.”

On Wednesday morning UK time, Chelsea released a statement of their own. “Chelsea Football Club finds all forms of discriminatory behaviour completely unacceptable. We are proud to be a diverse, inclusive club where people from all cultures, communities and identities feel welcome.

“We acknowledge and appreciate our player’s public apology and will use this as an opportunity to educate. The club has instigated an internal disciplinary procedure.”

Fernandez has since reached out to all his team-mates to express his remorse for what he has done.

Chelsea’s Senegal international Nicolas Jackson also posted on his Instagram account a picture displaying two images of Fernandez. One was a picture of him sitting with the midfielder, the other was a short clip of the 23-year-old engaging with a junior black supporter in the past. He titled it ‘Enzo Fernandez and this young fan’. The post has since been deleted.

Perhaps an indication that things have not moved on quite as simply as Chelsea may have hoped was provided by striker David Datro Fofana following Wesley Fofana in expressing his dismay at the events on Wednesday afternoon.

“The football that I like is multi-ethnic,” he wrote on his Instagram account. “Racism in all its forms should be condemned in the strongest possible term. These acts have no place in football or even anywhere else. This fight really needs to be taken seriously by everyone involved in this sport.”

So what happens now? Fernandez’s vacation could help take the heat out of the situation for the time being but the issue will surely come to the fore again if, as expected, he flies to the U.S. to join up with the Chelsea squad, who depart for the pre-season tour on Monday, the following week. One person familiar with the team environment told The Athletic that they feel some kind of mediation will still have to take place.

Fernandez, who cost £106million ($135m) when he joined from Benfica 18 months ago and is contracted until 2032, is clearly regarded as one of Chelsea’s key players. But his actions have also created an issue for Maresca, who has yet to talk to the media since taking charge. Inevitably the Italian will have questions to answer about it for the foreseeable future and the player’s bond with his colleagues, let alone his form, will now be under more scrutiny than ever.

[Vesper 28,801]

Football’s silence over Argentina’s racist chanting is deafening and damning

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5643556/2024/07/17/argentina-chanting-football-silence/

The telling bit in the video of Enzo Fernandez and other Argentinian players singing a racist song about France following their victory in the Copa America final is the voice you can hear just at the end.

“Corta (el) vivo,” someone says — “stop the live stream.”

They know. They know what they’re saying. They know that what they’re saying is profoundly offensive, and they know what will happen if the outside world hears it.

This isn’t one of those things that can be equivocated. It’s not something that can be denied. The words are clear, and we know the words because it’s a song that has been around for a couple of years.

The words to the chant were: “They play for France, but their parents are from Angola. Their mother is from Cameroon, while their father is from Nigeria. But their passport says French.”

The song in question came from a group of Argentina fans before the 2022 World Cup final, which was flagged at the time by French anti-racist protestors as an “expression of a far-right ideology”.

GO DEEPER

French Federation filing complaint over 'unacceptable racist' chants by Argentina players

Frankly it’s bad enough that Argentina, presumably insulated from a PR perspective by their victory at the World Cup, didn’t seek to distance themselves more from the song, but the fact the players seem to have incorporated it into their celebrations is so much worse. If nothing else, it speaks to an unpleasant collective mentality and pervading culture that a group of players, at a moment of triumph, would choose this song as part of their celebrations.

It’s also worth noting, without wishing to detract from the blatant racism, the transphobia that is at play here too. The full lyrics of the song make reference to French players being “cometravas, like Mbappe.” “Cometravas” is a slang term that essentially translates as “someone who has sex with transgender people”.

Football in general has made positive steps to make the game more welcoming for LGBTQ+ people. Players who actively choose not to participate in anti-homophobia campaigns are thankfully few and far between, and those that do are often punished — like Monaco midfielder Mohamed Camara who, after covering up an anti-homophobia message on his shirt last season, was suspended for four games.

Things like this song, however, do not help and in fact actively harm the effort to make football a more inclusive place.

But if the song itself and the gleeful willingness of the players involved to sing it was not depressing enough, the aftermath has been almost as bad.

Fernandez himself issued an apology of sorts, claiming that he got “caught up in the euphoria of our Copa America celebrations” and the song did not “reflect my character or beliefs”. He also said, rather laughably, that “I stand against discrimination in all forms”. Let’s just say that when he is inevitably forced to participate in some sort of anti-racism campaign in the weeks or months to come, his words will ring hollow.

Chelsea themselves reacted in fairly responsible fashion, putting out a statement that set out their own position and values, saying they will use this as “an opportunity to educate” and that they have started an internal disciplinary procedure.

It will be interesting to see what comes of that process, given that if Fernandez was a fan and was caught singing that song in the stands at Stamford Bridge, he would be looking at the ugly end of a fairly lengthy stadium ban.

Beyond that though, things have been very quiet.

Wesley Fofana, the French Chelsea defender, called it “uninhibited racism”. David Datro Fofana, the club’s Ivory Coast striker, put a statement on Instagram saying that “racism in all its forms should be condemned in the strongest possible terms” and that the fight against racism “needs to be taken seriously by everyone involved in the sport”.

It’s the last bit that feels the most pertinent. Because aside from those two responses, plus a picture posted by Nicolas Jackson of Fernandez hugging a black child, the meaning of which is open to interpretation, there’s not been much else.

Only black players have acknowledged the incident publicly so far. No white players have condemned the song. Perhaps some of Fofana’s white team-mates have offered private support, but as things stand there has been nothing beyond that.

As will be depressingly familiar, it is the black players that have been left to do the emotional work, to carry the mental baggage of having to deal with a racist incident. It enforces the idea that racism is a problem only for black people, when it’s a blight that shames us all. It isolates the black players, suggesting that it’s not something that anyone else has to worry about.

Imagine the power that would come from a white player standing up, unprompted, and condemning the song. It would provide a valuable symbol, but it would be more than just a surface-level thing. It would have genuine import.

The clubs of the other players in the video have, at the time of writing, decided not to comment. It is, in fairness, a little tricky to definitively identify exactly who is singing in the video, but everyone seems to be trying their best to ignore the issue entirely.

Perhaps we could give them the benefit of the doubt and say that, in time, they will speak to their Argentinian players and remind them of their responsibilities — not as footballers or representatives of a club, but as human beings. But at the moment it would seem that they are just hoping the whole thing goes away.

Even if it is tough to identify the individuals doing the singing, anyone who sat in silence while such a racist song was being sung probably could do with at least a talking-to. Surely the least we can expect from the clubs is for them to acknowledge the incident, that they will investigate and if it is found that any of their players were involved, they would face the appropriate punishment.

Chelsea are the only club to have said anything so far, not that we should necessarily be handing out extra credit for that: after all, they couldn’t possibly have avoided it.

Elsewhere though, crickets. For all the glossy campaigns and well-intentioned initiatives and solemnly shot ‘No to racism’ UEFA videos, when so much of the game is silent at moments like this, the idea that football is serious about combating racism is very hard to take seriously.

[KEVINAA 95]

It's time to get Chelsea to take dailymail UK to court and cease and desist them for provoking our club name and ruining our image to sponsors with lies.

 

 

Edited July 22 by KEVINAA