French national football players Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann, who play for FC Barcelona, Spain, have apologized after a video was released that said Japanese people were ugly.
However, the apology has no sincerity and is covered with contradictory excuses, arousing anger from fans.
When Dembele visited Japan on a pre-season tour in Barcelona in 2019, Dembele saw a group of hotel staff and used the expression "that ugly face" to demean Japanese people.
Dembele filmed the hotel staff gathered in front of the TV and said, "I just want to play a soccer game, so should I look at those ugly faces?"
He also said, "The language is backwards," while listening to the employees' conversations.
Griezmann, who was with him, was sitting on the bed and laughed when he heard this.
As the controversy grew when this video was recently published on social media, Dembele and Griezmann posted an apology on their social media accounts on the 5th local time.
"It happened in Japan, but it can happen anywhere in the world," said Dembele. "I say this everywhere," he said. "It's not aimed at a particular community."
He added, "I would personally say these things to my friends from any country," he added. "I am well aware that a video can be made public and people in it may be offended. So I want to sincerely apologize."
"I have always been against discrimination in all its forms," said Griezmann. "In the last few days, some people have wanted to make me look like someone I am not. I firmly oppose the accusations against me," he said. I apologize if I gave it to you.
Regarding the vague expression of whether it was an apology or not, Japanese fans reacted violently, saying there was no sincerity.
In the comments of related articles in the Japanese media, reactions such as "Is this an apology? I can only see that they are defending and justifying their actions" or "If the staff were black and white, would they have said and did the same thing and filmed the video?" achieved
(Photo=Getty Images Korea, Dembele Instagram, Yonhap News)