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Bernardo Silva wearing a 'Kick It Out' t-shirt. Peter Byrne

Bernardo Silva charged by FA over tweet about Man City team-mate Mendy

The Portuguese attacking midfielder could be looking at a six-match ban after this morning’s ruling.

MANCHESTER CITY’S BERNARDO Silva has been charged with misconduct by the Football Association over a controversial social media post comparing team-mate Benjamin Mendy with a black cartoon character.

The Portuguese midfielder last month tweeted an image of a young Mendy alongside an image of the character representing the Spanish chocolate peanut brand Conguitos.

He deleted the post but has now been charged, and could face a six-match ban if found guilty. 

A statement from the football governing body on Wednesday read: “Bernardo Silva has been charged with misconduct for a breach of FA Rule E3 in relation to a social media post on September 22, 2019.

“It is alleged that the Manchester City player’s activity breaches FA Rule E3(1) as it was insulting and/or improper and/or brought the game into disrepute.”

Silva last week sent a letter to the Football Association to apologise for any offence caused by the tweet.

Included with the letter was a statement of support from France international Mendy, who said he had not taken offence at what his Portuguese team-mate had posted.

City manager Pep Guardiola has also defended Silva.

Mendy and Silva have been team-mates since 2016, having spent a year together at Monaco before they both moved to City the following year.

© – AFP, 2019 

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    Mute Kyle Nolan
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    Oct 2nd 2019, 11:04 AM

    Not allowed to have a joke with friends no?

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    Mute Fergal O' Reilly
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    Oct 2nd 2019, 11:54 AM

    @Kyle Nolan: But he’s not being punished for having a joke with his friend. Once you publish it on a public platform, it’s no longer between you and your mate. You’ve voluntarily given up the right to claim privacy. It’s a no-brainer — once you make it public, it’s no longer a private. Note how practically no one is disputing that the content does in fact perpetuate old school racial stereotypes. It’s dumb. Plain and simple. Why publish it online when your mate’s sitting right next to you in the dressing room?

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    Mute Brysonpieters
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    Oct 2nd 2019, 7:40 PM

    @Fergal O’ Reilly: Joke of a world we live it now

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    Mute Aidan Prior
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    Oct 2nd 2019, 11:11 AM

    Completely over the top. If there is no malice or no offense taken by the person, why pursue it? Having personal experience of Latino culture, Latinos nickname friends Negro or Chinito and both of these guys know, the FA in the other hand don’t understand it, but those nicknames are not deemed offensive in the likes of South America etc.

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    Mute Derek Durkin
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    Oct 2nd 2019, 11:44 AM

    @Aidan Prior: welcome to the future

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    Mute Eric Davies
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    Oct 4th 2019, 11:39 AM

    @Aidan Prior: this is exactly what luis suarez told the f.a in the evra case – the word ‘negrito’ is acceptable in south american culture and is not deemed as offensive in anyway – but the f.a was having none of that – seems to me that certain board members on the english f.a committees are more concerned about making a name for themselves than they are about the actual context of the alleged ‘offense’ – in this case the person who the post was supposed to ‘ridicule’ took no offense by it at all – in the suarez case not one other player or official heard the words being used except evera – even though the referee was less than 6 foot away from both players – seems like the f.a love to get ‘offended ‘ on other peoples behalf !

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    Mute Sean Bradley
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    Oct 2nd 2019, 11:33 AM

    Mendy took no offense to it, but other people are taken offense to it on his behalf, madness!

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    Mute Eric Davies
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    Oct 4th 2019, 11:55 AM

    @Sean Bradley: certain other people -like mainly middle aged , well paid white men on the f.a’s disciplinary board ! oh and most likely jermaine jenas who finds offense in anything and everything -unless its spurs of course !

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    Mute Derek Peyton
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    Oct 2nd 2019, 11:03 AM

    Ridiculous. You can’t say boo these days.

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    Mute Thefallguy
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    Oct 2nd 2019, 11:32 AM

    Throw the book at him…

    Drops mic and walks casually away humming “You never walk alone”

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    Mute Eric Davies
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    Oct 4th 2019, 11:52 AM

    @Thefallguy: i’m a life long liverpool fan and i tell you now that a lot of lfc fans think it would be wrong to ban silva for this – this is nothing more than the english f.a trying to play ‘billy big balls’ and show how ‘politically correct ‘ they are – its more about their egos and public standing than about if mendy or anyone else took offense at this — they did the same with suarez after the eva incident – no one else -players or officials heard anything -but the f.a took action – even when cultural experts told the f.a that the terms used by suarez were not considered offensive in his home country — cultural difference was no excuse according to the f.a . . strange then that the same f.a board saw no need to take action against a section of the manchester city team when they sang songs on their team bus that mocked mo salah getting his shoulder broken in the champions league final in 2017 …

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    Mute Brian Burke
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    Oct 2nd 2019, 11:33 AM

    While I think he meant no harm at all, in the current climate, maybe he should’ve showed it to him privately rather than so publicly to avoid all the furore and also if it was a random member of the public done it many people wouldn’t see it as “banter”. So I think the FA is trying to set a precedent here that no matter who you are or who it is towards those type of posts won’t be tolerated on social media.

    I don’t think he’s racist. It was just ill-judged

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    Mute Gareth Keenan
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    Oct 2nd 2019, 11:31 AM

    It’s absolute bull that you should get banned for this. But that’s the society we live in now and those are the rules. He was stupid to post it.

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    Mute Fr Romeo sensini.
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    Oct 2nd 2019, 2:20 PM

    Private message lads,could have saved a whole lot of hassle.but this is way over the top although I’m not surprised.

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    Mute kieran
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    Oct 2nd 2019, 5:10 PM

    Sometimes small things happen that chip away at your faith in humanity and our ability to understand what’s humour and what’s malicious. This is one of those times

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    Mute Barry Hickey
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    Oct 2nd 2019, 1:37 PM

    If it were a private joke then this would be ridiculous but it was posted online, so much like this comment on the 42, I cannot claim I’m only joking with a friend when the whole world can see it and I knowingly posted it etc.

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    Mute Seagoat returns
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    Oct 2nd 2019, 6:52 PM

    The comparison jibe to a cartoon character is a light-hearted social media post that if turned the other way would not even be discussed as an issue. I supported him on this but then I saw this video https://youtu.be/m4kUjYF-w3c and I question his judgement, it is not great imo

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