France trio, Aurelien Tchouameni, Kingsley Coman, and Randal Kolo Muani all experienced racial abuse on their social media profiles, following the failure of their country’s national team in the World Cup final.
Kingsley Coman was among the Les Bleus team who suffered a defeat to Argentina in a spectacular and thrilling final, which Argentina won on penalties after a 3-3 tie in extra time.
Aurelien Tchouameni, Kingsley Coman, and Randal Kolo Muani have all suffered appalling racial abuse on social media even before the beaten French team returned to Paris from Qatar.
Following their return, the attack on Coman, Kolo-Muani, and Tchouameni has continued on social media. However, as the hateful remarks are pouring in, they were being deleted by Meta, the company that owns Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.
“We don’t want racial abuse on Instagram, and we’ve removed the abhorrent remarks for breaking our guidelines,” a spokeswoman for Meta told reporters.
“Because the comments were offensive and against our guidelines, we removed them from Instagram. We don’t want racist abuse there.
“We also want to help prevent individuals from having to see this abuse in the first place, which is why we created Limits.”
A feature that conceals comments and DMs from people who don’t follow you, and Hidden Words, a feature that filters abusive comments and DMs, help to fight any form of abuse on the various platforms owned by Meta.
Argentina won its first global championship since 1986 and third overall after goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez of Argentina stopped Kingsley Coman’s penalty kick and saved Tchouameni’s attempt from the spot.
In the shootout, Kingsley Coman and Tchouameni both missed penalties, painfully recalling the vitriol that England’s young talents Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, and Bukayo Saka endured after the Euro 2020 championship defeat.
On social media, the French players have all received several racist remarks, including emojis of monkeys and bananas. Tchouameni, 22, and Kolo Muani, 24, have both restricted the comment section on their Instagram pages, while Coman’s comment section still allows for comments.
The abuse was so abhorrent that Tchouameni and Kolo-Muani had to deactivate their accounts. However, both accounts were later restored with the comments removed.
As France rallied from a 2-0 deficit late in the second half to force extra time, Coman and Kolo-Muani were two substitutes who had an impact on the game. While Tchouameni scored against England in the quarterfinal, the latter also scored in the World Cup semifinal.
Bayern Munich, Kingsley Coman’s team, has released a message of solidarity for the 26-year-old and a statement denouncing the racist remarks directed at him.
“You have the support of the FC Bayern Munich family, King. Racism has no place in our culture or sport”, the club tweeted.
What’s next for Aurelien Tchouameni, Coman, and Randal Kolo Muani?
The trio will pick themselves up from failure as they will be looking forward to getting back to action for their respective clubs when the League resumes in a matter of days.
