REECE JAMES ADMITS the racism storm surrounding Chelsea team-mate Enzo Fernandez could be a “problem” within the dressing room.
Fernandez and his Argentina team-mates caused controversy during their Copa America celebrations, when they were filmed singing a derogatory song aimed at a number of France players.
While Chelsea’s club-record signing has apologised, he was called out by Blues team-mate and France international Wesley Fofana who said the video showed “uninhibited racism”.
An internal investigation is underway, with Fernandez due to meet up with his Chelsea colleagues on Monday as their pre-season preparations continue in the United States.
Asked if the issue could impact on team spirit at Stamford Bridge, James told ESPN: “Of course.
There’s always the factor where it doesn’t sit right with people when there could be a problem.
“But until the day comes where everyone’s together and in a room together, I don’t know, but I hope things can be resolved smoothly and we can move forward with the season.”
England full-back James, who is back in training after an injury-hit campaign last year, revealed he has already had a conversation with Fernandez.
“I spoke to him a bit, but it was hard because we were on different time zones,” he added.
“Just a general chat really. His views on what happened and him trying to explain his situation and how things happened.
“It’s a really difficult situation. There’s no room for racism or discrimination in football.
“I think he quickly put his hand up and acknowledged he’d done wrong and apologised to his team-mates, the club and the rest of the people that were offended. I think that was probably the best he could have done in that situation.”
Fernandez needs to go, anything else is just hypocrisy. I’d imagine all black or mixed race Chelsea players will have an issue with sharing a dressing room with him. All the knee bending in the world won’t compensate for the blatant racism of the Argentine chants.
@Hibernicus: the chant stated that France has players with parents from Angola, Cameroon and Nigeria. This is a fact but because a French player, with an Ivorian father, gets upset and calls it racism, everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Maybe, if France didn’t colonise and rob all these countries of their resources, the parents could have stayed in their home country. If you call it blatant racism, you obviously didn’t even bother finding out what the chant was.
@John Buckley: They are singing that the French team are lesser because they have players of African decent on their team. That is racist, case closed.
@John Buckley: They didn’t say that… it went along the lines of father from Angola, mother from Nigeria, and born in Cameroon; but somehow a French passport. While I agree with you on the colonisation point, this is blatant racism. The fact players like Rodrigo De Paul and a senior member of the Argentine government doubled down on it shows the intrinsic problem with racism that nation has. Not only is it offensive towards the French, but effectively the entire continent of Africa seeing as they could have picked any African nations and insinuated their kids are ‘fake French’. Enzo and a handful of the others are a nasty bunch. That’ll go down a treat at Chelsea based on their political history!
@Ultán Corcoran: if you are going to correct someone, get it right.
The chant states: 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.
All of this is true but the self-righteous bunch read what they want into it. African migrants make up less than 10% of the population of France but have 50% of national squad. Maybe that’s why the French are offended. There is no reason for African countries to be offended, they should be proud that their decendants win world cups
@John Buckley: the inference is, because they are of African descent, that they’re not really French. Sounds pretty racist to me
@John Buckley: John lad you haven’t a clue, it’s so clearly racist the fact you can’t see it is worrying.
Comments closed
@Gary Galligan: obviously not