Antoine Griezmann laughed in a recently published video after roommate Ousamne Dembélé made derogatory comments about Japanese people present – now Japanese advertising partner Konami has terminated the cooperation.
The racism scandal of the French internationals Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann from FC Barcelona around a video from 2019, which both shows how they express themselves disparagingly about a Japanese, has costly consequences, at least for Griezmann.
Griezmann and Dembele posted public apologies on Tuesday after the video appeared on the Internet. However, that didn’t stop video game giant Konami from directly terminating the advertising contract with Griezmann that was only signed in June.
Konami: Any kind of discrimination is unacceptable
“Konami Digital Entertainment believes, as is the philosophy of sport, that discrimination of any kind is unacceptable. We previously announced Antoine Griezmann as our ambassador for Yu-Gi-Oh! Content, but we made a decision in light of recent events to terminate the contract, “said an official statement from the Japanese company.
Konami is also the manufacturer of the soccer simulation “eFootball PES” and the exclusive video game partner of FC Barcelona. In this context, Konami said: “With regard to our eFootball PES franchise, we will ask FC Barcelona, as club partner, to explain the details of this case and its future actions.”
But that’s not all, because the shirt sponsor of FC Barcelona, Rakuten – a Japanese online company – has already announced that it will ask questions to the club.
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