The French Football Federation (FFF) has condemned racist online abuse directed at its players and promised to take action after Argentina defeated France in penalties at the World Cup final.
The federation said on Tuesday that some players were hit by “unacceptable racist and hateful comments on social networks” and that it plans to file a complaint against social media users who have targeted the team members.
“The French soccer federation condemns with the utmost firmness these intolerable behaviours and abuses,” read the statement on Twitter.
On Monday, the BBC reported that the racial abuse was directed at Black French players Kingsley Coman and Aurélien Tchouaméni, who missed crucial penalty shots in the 3-3 tie that ended in a 4-2 penalty shootout.
Argentina keeper Emiliano Martinez saved Coman’s effort from the spot, while Tchouaméni shot wide as France failed to retain the title it won in 2018.
The abusive messages, which included monkey and banana emojis, were also directed at teammate Randal Kolo Muani, who has since disabled comments on his Instagram posts.
Meta, which owns Instagram, said in a statement to the Athletic that “we’ve removed the disgusting comments for breaking our rules.”
Following the insults, French government officials expressed have their outrage including the Minister for Gender Equality and Diversity Isabelle Rome, who stated that players Kylian Mbappe and Kingsley Coman, who are both Black, were among those abused online.
Bayern Munich, Coman’s club, also condemned the racist remarks directed at the winger.
“The FC Bayern family is behind you, King. Racism has no place in sport or our society,” Bayern wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, some players have had to disable comments on their Instagram accounts due to “a torrent of racist slurs, with hundreds of users on the social network posting comments likening them to apes, slaves, or even encouraging them to go back to the jungle,” according to a statement from the anti-racism organisation SOS Racisme. The NGO has stated that it will file a complaint.
Commenting on the hypocrisy and racial double standards surrounding attacking French Black players, Khaled Beydoun, a Law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit tweeted: “When you win you’re French, but when you lose you’re Black, African and Arab.”
More than 12 of the 25 French players are Black and have African ancestry, including French star Kylian Mbappe, who is of Cameroonian and Algerian descent.