A two-year-old video with racist remarks has now become the undoing of the two France stars Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele.
The two French internationals Antoine Griezmann (30) and Ousmane Dembele (24) caused a racism scandal. A 2019 video is circulating on social media that was taken as part of a PR tour for FC Barcelona in Japan and shows the two attacking players how they express themselves racially about Japanese hotel employees.
The staff were trying to fix a technical problem in the hotel room to enable Dembele and Griezmann to play video games. During the maintenance work, Dembele filmed the employees, zoomed in on their faces and cursed them in French. “All these ugly faces just so you can play Pro Evolution Soccer,” the former Dortmund native can be heard: “What kind of backward language is that? Are you technologically advanced in your country or not?”
Griezmann did not express himself racist, but laughed at what his teammate said.
“It was not aimed at any particular section of the population”: Dembele and Griezmann respond
Both Griezmann and Dembele have now reacted. The latter made a questionable statement.
“The video was shot in Japan, but it could have been shot anywhere else in the world, I would have chosen the same language regardless of location. It wasn’t aimed at any particular group of people. I tend to love it in private and with my friends that language usage, no matter where they come from, “wrote Dembele Instagram: “I can imagine that the video could have offended the people who can be seen on it. So I would like to apologize to you.”
Griezmann explained via Twitterthat he “always stood up against all forms of discrimination”. “In the past few days, some people have tried to portray me as the man I am not. I firmly reject the allegations made against me and I am sorry if I have insulted my Japanese friends,” he wrote.
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