MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine footballer angers French with Copa America celebration chant

French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said the Argentine players' attitude was “pathetic”

French authorities said Tuesday they would be seeking a reponse from football's governing body FIFA after a video of Argentine international Enzo Fernández went viral. The Chelsea midfielder filmed himself chanting offensive remarks about the ethnicity of France's players in addition to other comments concerning star Kylian Mbappé's sexual preferences.

 The French Football Federation (FFF) said it was considering a formal complaint before FIFA while other legal action was not to be ruled out. FFF President Philippe Diallo “condemned with the greatest firmness the unacceptable racist and discriminatory remarks made against players of the France team.”

The chant itself is not new: it was made up by a group of Argentine fans ahaead of the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar in which Argentina defeated France on penalties.

French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said the Argentine players' attitude was “pathetic.” She added that these behaviors were “even more unacceptable because they are repeated” and wondred if there would be any reaction on FIFA's part.

European outlets with a closer took to their continental club scene claim that Argentina and France have maintained a heated rivalry since the South Americans last 16 elimination to eventual champions France at the 2018 World Cup in Russia but MercoPress sources in Buenos Aires can only trace that feud to 2022, during which the non-African ethnicity of the South American squad was raised as a questionable shortcoming.

According to Fernández, Mbappé lacked all sportsmanship during the Qatar final. “In a divided ball, ... he made a gesture to us as if he was going to kill us; he got into it with me, I don't know why.”

“Mbappé was telling me like he was going to kill us, that they were going to win the final,” he added.