Chelsea have welcomed the offer from Paul Canoville to help support any “restorative process” involving Enzo Fernandez following the chanting of a racist song by the midfielder and his Argentine team-mates.
Fernandez took to Instagram in the aftermath of Argentina’s Copa America success against Colombia and live streamed him and his team-mates chanting a racist and homophobic song.
The midfielder has since apologised publicly and privately to his team-mates whilst Chelsea have opened an internal disciplinary investigation into the matter, which is likely to seen Fernandez fined.
Chelsea welcome Canoville’s offer to help in Fernandez racism incident
The incident hasn’t gone down well with the club’s contingent of black French players with Wesley Fofana taking to social media to post a clip of the video with the words “football in 2024: uninhibited racism.”
A number of Chelsea’s French players have unfollowed the World Cup winner on social media and he could still face a ban if the FA get involved, whilst UEFA and FIFA are also looking into the video.
Fernandez is currently on holiday following his Copa America exploits this summer, and his return to the group will no doubt be awkward and he’s got a lot of apologising to do to his team-mates who he has massively offended and let down through his actions.
Chelsea’s first black player Canoville reached out last week to offer to help with any “educational and restorative work.”
The Evening Standard report that Chelsea have acknowledged the offer and thanked Canoville, but they are still working out how exactly to “progress the situation.”
The Blues head off to America on Monday and have their first pre-season games against Wrexham on Wednesday and Celtic on Saturday.
New boss Enzo Maresca will face the media this week ahead of the games and will likely be met with a number of questions on the issue, which is a headache the Italian could really have done without as he settles into the job.
The irony. Paul Canoville is probably the most discriminatory person involved at Chelsea. always spreading hate and with the IQ of a lemon