Argentine Enzo Fernández’s apology is criticized in France

The victory of the Argentine national football team in the Copa America final against Colombia on Sunday already had some less pleasant aspects due to security problems and the crowds of fans at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. But the reaction of the Argentine team to this victory has caused even more problems. In particular, videos were posted of players singing a song that denigrated the national origins of the players of the French national team (which did not participate in the tournament):

Argentina’s Copa America winners were filmed singing a racist chant, some of which was xenophobic and mocked the French national team.

“You play for France,
but they come from Angola.
His mother is Nigerian,
his father Cameroonian,
but in the passport: French”pic.twitter.com/0vfQcaPPRT

— DW Sports (@dw_sports) July 16, 2024

This, of course, sparked a lot of backlash and controversy. And it’s notable that it wasn’t just outsiders filming. In fact, some of it came from Argentinian midfielder Enzo Fernández (who plays for Chelsea in the English Premier League at club level), who shared it on his Instagram account. But that led to his clubmate Wesley Fofana (a French international who was born in France) challenging him:

Football in 2024: Racism decomplexified 🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/MGkH5wPmNU

– Wesley Fofana (@Wesley_Fofana3) July 16, 2024

In the end, Fernández apologized for it. Unfortunately, he did so in the most derided font. That was Comic Sans. And that led to many comments. Here are some of them:

Comic Sans, the perfect font to show how remorseful you are https://t.co/iYccGisQMx

— ۟ (@capvirgvl) July 16, 2024

Using this font is so weird. I feel like if you want to be serious you need a serif font. Not this bubbly, childish typeface. I’m not sure Enzo is as remorseful as he says. And where’s the apology from the rest of the team + the AFA? https://t.co/nQhW1sOsJR

— MU🅱️Z (@bigfanofLFC) July 16, 2024

Enzo’s PR team when they insisted on using Comic Sans pic.twitter.com/x6cP77Nxms https://t.co/JLi9HyAYZj

— Anfield Fix (@AnfieIdFix) July 16, 2024

Enzo wrote this apology in Comic Sans, but that’s not enough. The only reasonable apology is to get beat up by the French Chelsea boys when he gets back to Cobham.

— Rheon (@thisisrheon) July 17, 2024

Enzo Fernandez publicly chanted racist slogans and laughed about it. There is no apology that should be considered acceptable, let alone one in Comic Sans.

If you want to defend him, look at what he caused with the comments Wesley Fofana is now receiving for speaking out against… https://t.co/ZFYN1TQvBm pic.twitter.com/f8TyclLgml

– Adam (@AdamJoseph____) July 17, 2024

Of course, the story here isn’t necessarily known to Fernández or his PR team. But Comic Sans in sports has long been mocked, most notably in the context of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert’s (later removed) angry suicide note to LeBron James in 2014. And it’s not a font to be taken particularly seriously in general, and certainly not one that should be used for an apology.

Yes, the far more serious issue surrounding the Copa América final is the security failures and the resulting fan frenzy. But that doesn’t mean that these post-celebration actions by the Argentine team should be overlooked. (And it’s notable that the team’s official English Twitter/X account faced other criticism earlier in the tournament.) And it’s certainly interesting that Fernández’s attempt to fix this was criticized for a very avoidable font choice.