FIFA investigates racist chants by Argentina players after Copa America victory

The football governing body FIFA revealed on Wednesday that it is launching an inquiry into racist songs sung by Argentine players after claiming the Copa America crown. 

The global football body said: “FIFA has seen a video that has circulated on social media and the matter is under investigation. ”

Further, FIFA reiterated, “Football, FIFA included, is an open space that has no room for racism and discrimination by anyone including the players, fans and officials.” 

The chants arose from an offstage live video posted by Enzo Fernandez, a Chelsea and Argentina midfielder on the team bus after their win against Colombia in Miami on Sunday. 

Fernandez remarked that some of the players sing a ‘23’ chant popularised by the 2022 World Cup final against France. The song even targets France’s star striker Kylian Mbappe among others and uses racist and homophobic slap. Chelsea was quick to launch an internal disciplinary process to reprimand Fernandez for the event. 

Since then, Fernandez has come out to apologise, the club disclosed that it had launched an “internal disciplinary process. ” Chelsea Football Club affirmed that it condemns all types of discrimination and added that it welcomed and would make use of Fernandez’s public apology statement.

Fernandez, who joined Chelsea from Benfica for a Premier League record fee of £105 million ($136. 8 million) in 2023, expressed in his apology: ”This contains highly objectionable language and there is no reason for these words. They include discrimination in any form and I want to apologise for this incident I was swept up in the spirit of Copa America.”

The French Football Federation (FFF) lodged a formal protest to FIFA about the chants on Monday. FFF president Philippe Diallo said he ‘utterly denounced in the strongest of terms, racism and discrimination comments targeting players in the France team’. France won in the last 16 of the 2018 FIFA World Cup against Argentina.