WORLD CUP 2022
France trio racially abused online after World Cup final defeat to Argentina
Following France’s Qatar 2022 World Cup final defeat, Aurélien Tchouméni, Kingsley Coman and Randal Kolo Muani suffered disgusting racial abuse online.
France internationals Aurélien Tchouméni, Kingsley Coman and Randal Kolo Muani received vile racist abuse online following their nation’s World Cup final penalty shootout defeat to Argentina on Sunday, The Athletic have reported.
Eintracht Frankfurt attacker Kolo Muani started the match on the bench but was introduced just before half-time and played a key role in helping France get back into things after a poor start. He had the chance to win the trophy in stoppage-time in extra-time but had his effort saved by Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez.
Kolo Muani was one of two France players to score in the shootout, alongside Kylian Mbappé. However, Real Madrid midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni, who played the full 120 minutes, sent his spot-kick wide, while Bayern Munich’s Kingsley Coman, who also had a positive impact as a second-half substitute, was denied from 12 yards by Martínez.
What do Meta do about racist abuse on Instagram?
All three received abusive messages containing banana and monkey emojis in the aftermath of the match. Meta, who own Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, later removed the offensive posts and condemned the abuse when approached by The Athletic.
“We don’t want racist abuse on Instagram, and we’ve removed the disgusting comments for breaking our rules.
‘We also want to help protect people from having to see this abuse in the first place, which is why we’ve developed Hidden Words, a feature that filters offensive comments and DMs, and Limits, which hides comments and DMs from people who don’t follow you, or only followed you recently.
“We’re in touch with players and their teams directly, including since yesterday’s final, to offer them support and help them turn on these tools.”
Coman’s club Bayern Munich also posted a short statement of support on their social media channels.
“FC Bayern strongly condemn the racist comments made towards Kingsley Coman. The FC Bayern family is behind you, King. Racism has no place in sport or our society.”
In almost identical circumstances, England players Bukayo Sako, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho also suffered disgraceful racist abuse after missing penalties in their country’s Euro 2020 final penalty shootout defeat to Italy.