More than 12 of the 25 French players are Black and have African ancestry, including French star Kylian Mbappe, who is of Cameroonian and Algerian descent.
The French Football Federation (FFF) has condemned racist online abuse directed at its players and promised to take action after Argentina defeated France in penalties at the World Cup final.
The federation said on Tuesday that some players were hit by “unacceptable racist and hateful comments on social networks” and that it plans to file a complaint against social media users who have targeted the team members.
“The French soccer federation condemns with the utmost firmness these intolerable behaviours and abuses,” read the statement on Twitter.
On Monday, the BBC reported that the racial abuse was directed at Black French players Kingsley Coman and Aurélien Tchouaméni, who missed crucial penalty shots in the 3-3 tie that ended in a 4-2 penalty shootout.
Argentina keeper Emiliano Martinez saved Coman’s effort from the spot, while Tchouaméni shot wide as France failed to retain the title it won in 2018.
The abusive messages, which included monkey and banana emojis, were also directed at teammate Randal Kolo Muani, who has since disabled comments on his Instagram posts.
Meta, which owns Instagram, said in a statement to the Athletic that “we’ve removed the disgusting comments for breaking our rules.”
Following the insults, French government officials expressed have their outrage including the Minister for Gender Equality and Diversity Isabelle Rome, who stated that players Kylian Mbappe and Kingsley Coman, who are both Black, were among those abused online.
Bayern Munich, Coman’s club, also condemned the racist remarks directed at the winger.
“The FC Bayern family is behind you, King. Racism has no place in sport or our society,” Bayern wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, some players have had to disable comments on their Instagram accounts due to “a torrent of racist slurs, with hundreds of users on the social network posting comments likening them to apes, slaves, or even encouraging them to go back to the jungle,” according to a statement from the anti-racism organisation SOS Racisme. The NGO has stated that it will file a complaint.
Commenting on the hypocrisy and racial double standards surrounding attacking French Black players, Khaled Beydoun, a Law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit tweeted: “When you win you’re French, but when you lose you’re Black, African and Arab.”
Racial abuse in football: feature or glitch?
More than 12 of the 25 French players are Black and have African ancestry, including French star Kylian Mbappe, who is of Cameroonian and Algerian descent.
The online abuse directed at the French trio is similar to that directed at Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka following last year’s Euro’s final. In England’s penalty shootout loss to Italy, all three players missed their attempts.
The racist comments, which were condemned by the English Football Association and others, prompted some fans to rally behind the trio by leaving positive comments on their social media posts.
Following this incident, British Police arrested 11 people for racist social media posts, one of which was sentenced to 10 weeks in prison.
Online racist abuse of Black players by European football fans occurs frequently, sometimes extending beyond social media.
Two months after the English trio were targeted, FIFA fined the Hungarian Football Federation and banned its fans for the “racist behaviour of numerous supporters” during a loss to England in Budapest.
Less than a month later, fans in Germany hurled beer and other objects at Black players during a Bundesliga match. A banana was thrown at Brazilian forward Richarlison as he celebrated scoring a goal during a friendly in Paris, in September.
Despite failing to defend their 2018 World Cup title, the French team was greeted warmly upon their return to Paris on Monday night, with thousands of fans cheering them on at the Place de la Concorde.
France’s defeat to Argentina in the 2022 World Cup final ended their bid to become only the fourth country to win the World Cup three times, an achievement Argentina can now claim.