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.
🫡 Colonel Kolo Muani
— French Team ⭐⭐ (@FrenchTeam) December 19, 2022
After entering at 𝟰𝟭 minutes, Randal won 1️⃣3️⃣ 𝗱𝘂𝗲𝗹𝘀 during the final, 𝟰 more than any other player ⚔️
The 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 in a 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗖𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 since Gennaro Gattuso in 2006 (17) 👊 pic.twitter.com/hR3xDgggTk
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.”
FC Bayern strongly condemn the racist comments made towards Kingsley Coman.
— FC Bayern Munich (@FCBayernEN) December 19, 2022
The FC Bayern family is behind you, King. Racism has no place in sport or our society. pic.twitter.com/9Mvhrt0Zc9
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.