The land had to be cleared.
The two players did so within an hour of each other on Monday afternoon.
Ousmane Dembélé and Antoine Griezmann apologized three days after the broadcast of a sequence broadcast on social networks where we hear the first laughing at the physique and language of hotel employees in Japan alongside the second.
Remarks in bad taste but by no means racist, he said.
“Recently, a private video dating from 2019 was circulating on social networks.
The scene happens to be 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, ”says the 2018 world champion in a story posted on his Instagram account.
"This video is now public," he adds in this short text in the form of a mea culpa.
So I can imagine that she could have offended the people in these images.
Therefore, I offer them my sincere apologies.
"
Read also Dembélé and Griezmann accused of anti-Asian racism: five questions about this controversial video
The extract appears to have been captured by Ousmane Dembélé himself via a Snapchat account.
It was obviously recorded during the summer tour in Japan of his club, FC Barcelona, whose main jersey sponsor is the Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten.
In this video, Dembélé challenges his Barça teammate Antoine Griezmann while technicians are busy around a TV in a hotel room.
He is ironic about their physique and their language under the gaze of his partner, amused but silent.
“All those dirty faces… To play PES.
You're not ashamed, ”we can notably hear Dembélé say, zooming in on the face of one of the hotel's employees.
"Some people want to pass me off as the man I'm not"
The video first broadcast on Friday on an almost anonymous YouTube account (25 subscribers) was included in a particularly widely relayed tweet (more than 6,000 retweets) calling for an end to racism against Asians (“#StopAsianHate”).
Antoine Griezmann was indignant at the accusations also brought against him.
"I have always been committed against any form of discrimination," says the world champion.
For the past few days, some people have wanted to pass me off as the man I am not.
I firmly refute the accusations made against me and I am sorry if I could offend my Japanese friends.
"
I have always been committed against any form of discrimination.
For the past few days, some people have wanted to pass me off as the man I am not.
I firmly refute the accusations made against me and I am sorry if I could offend my Japanese friends.
- Antoine Griezmann (@AntoGriezmann) July 5, 2021
The Barça 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 a photo of him on social networks , disguised as a black Harlem Globetrotters player.
A tribute for him but a gesture interpreted by others as a "blackface", which refers to a racist practice born at the time of segregation in the United States.
Contacted by the Parisian, FC Barcelona did not wish to comment on this episode and simply refers to the statements of his two players.