Ousmane Dembélé and Antoine Griezmann apologize after accusations of racism

It is a private video released a few days after the elimination of France in the round of 16 of Euro 2020 which is controversial. The two French strikers Ousmane Dembélé and Antoine Griezmann apologized in turn on Monday about a short excerpt that has been running in recent days on social networks, calling for an end to racism against Asians. In this video, the two friends make fun of Japanese technicians installing game consoles, during a tour of Japan in 2019. FC Barcelona teammates publicly refute the accusations of racism brought to them.

On the sidelines of a friendly match

This incident took place on the sidelines of the Rakuten Cup, a friendly pre-season tour played with FC Barcelona in Japan in the summer of 2019. In this video of less than a minute, we can see Antoine Griezmann and hear Ousmane Dembélé’s inappropriate comments about the physique and language of hotel employees. “It turns out that the scene takes place in Japan. It could have taken place anywhere on the planet, I would have used the same expressions. So I was not targeting any community”, defends the former Rennais.

“I sometimes use this kind of expressions in private, with friends, and it does not matter where they come from. I can imagine that the video could have offended the people present in these images,” argues the 24-year-old attacker. . “I offer them my sincere apologies.”

“I have always been committed against any form of discrimination”, explains Antoine Griezmann, a few minutes later on social networks. “For a few days now some people want to pass me off as the man I am not. I firmly refute the accusations made to me and I am sorry if I could offend my Japanese friends”, adds the star striker bruises.

The former Atletico de Madrid striker, who denounced at the end of the year the assault of a black police producer by police officers in Paris, had already had to apologize in December 2017 after posting on the networks social a photo of him, disguised as a black player of the Harlem Globetrotters. A tribute for him but a gesture denounced as a “blackface”, which refers to a racist practice born at the time of segregation in the United States.

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