Argentine President Javier Milei fired Sports Undersecretary Julio Garro on Wednesday after Garro urged soccer star Lionel Messi and the president of the Argentine Football Association, (AFA) Claudio Tapia, to issue an apology after the publication on social media of a video featuring the Argentine national soccer team singing a song characterized as racist and transphobic.
Argentina’s soccer team is at the center of controversy after the French Football Federation (FFF) presented a formal complaint to FIFA, the world’s top soccer authority, this week, accusing the Argentine team of racism and discrimination. The team, following their victory in the Copa América championship on Sunday, livestreamed themselves singing a chant in which they mocked the French team for having African-origin players.
Enzo Fernández, one of the Argentine team’s players, hosted a livestream on his Instagram account while inside a bus with some of his fellow teammates. In one part of the stream, Fernández and other members of the team are heard singing a controversial chant that contains derisive lyrics against France’s national soccer team and their captain Kylian Mbappé. A voice is heard saying “Cut the live, idiot!” to Fernández while the team is chanting.
Warning – Racist and Transphobic Language:
“Listen, spread the word, they play in France but they are all from Angola,” the players sang. “How cute, they are going to run, they are tr***y f****rs like that fa**ot Mbappé. His mother is Nigerian, his old man Cameroonian, but on the document [passport], French nationality.”
Messi, the team’s most famous star and an international sensation, was not present in the bus at the time of the video.
The chant in question became popular during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, in which Argentina defeated France for the championship. France is not a participant in the Copa América and instead played in the analogous Euro Cup this month.
The stream, which went viral on social media, prompted FFF to issue the legal complaint. FIFA, in its capacity as the world’s highest-ranking soccer association, responded that it was “aware” of the video and that they have launched an investigation into the matter. Fernández, who hosted the controversial Instagram stream, issued a public apology on Tuesday evening, asserting that he stands “against discrimination in all forms” and stressing that neither the video, nor that moment, reflect his beliefs or his character.
Garro, who up until Wednesday served as the Argentine government’s sports undersecretary, stated in a local radio interview on Wednesday that Lionel Messi, who is the Argentine team’s captain, should apologize alongside Claudio Tapia, the current President of Argentina’s soccer association.
“I think it is appropriate, it is something that leaves us as a country in a bad light, with so much glory,” Garro said. “But, well, to be able to take that plane to something exemplary I think it is also very good in the country and in the world.”
Messi, who presently plays for Florida’s Inter Miami soccer team, was reportedly not present in the bus when the controversial chants were made by some of his teammates. The bus transported the Argentine players to the airport on their way back to Buenos Aires, while Messi remained in Miami to receive treatment for an injury he suffered on his right ankle during Sunday’s match against Colombia. On Monday, Messi reportedly posted pictures on his Instagram account that showed him eating a meal with his child at his residence in Miami.
Hours after the interview, Garro denied on social media that he had requested Messi issue an apology, stating that “it would be disrespectful to someone who permanently honors us with his human and sporting qualities.”
The Argentine presidency dismissed Garro on Wednesday evening, issuing a statement on its Twitter account stressing that “no government can tell the Argentine National Team – world champions and two-time champion of America – or any other citizen what to comment, what to think or what to do.”
“For this reason, Julio Garro ceases to be Undersecretary of Sports of the Nation,” the brief statement concludes.
Argentine Vice President Victoria Villarruel also expressed support to Argentina’s national soccer team in a social media post issued shortly before the announcement of Garro’s dismissal, condemning France’s history of colonialism and suggesting the nation’s soccer team is hypocritical for objecting to the Argentine song.
Her message reads:
Argentina is a free and sovereign country. We never had colonies or second-class citizens. We have never imposed our way of life on anyone. But neither will we tolerate that they do it to us. Argentina was built with the sweat and courage of Indians, Europeans, Creoles and blacks like Remedios del Valle, Sergeant Cabral, and Bernardo de Monteagudo.
No colonialist country is going to intimidate us for a song or for telling the truths that they do not want to admit. Enough of feigning indignation, hypocrites. Enzo, I support you. Messi, thanks for everything! Argentines always with your heads held high! Long live Argentinity!
Garro responded to his dismissal in another social media post in which he thanked President Milei for letting him be part of his team, claiming that he “will always be on the other side of discrimination in all its forms.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.