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Chelsea Forced To Apologise For Player's 'Racist' Instagram Post

Chelsea Forced To Apologise For Player's 'Racist' Instagram Post

The Blues took on Arsenal in a pre-season friendly in China yesterday.

Josh Lawless

Josh Lawless

Chelsea have been forced to issue an apology after their player Kenedy made some insulting comments about China.

The Brazilian came on as a substitute in the 3-0 pre-season friendly win over Arsenal at the Birds Nest Stadium in Beijing, with a brace from Michy Batshuayi either side of a strike from Willian giving the Premier League champions their final win in China.

And he has received plenty of backlash for two particular posts on Instagram story prior the game, with his comments deemed racist and xenophobic by many.

Image: PA

The 21-year old, who struggled for game-time as Chelsea won the Premier League last season, posted one clip captioned with the words "Porra China", which translates to "Fuck China".

The second one was footage of a sleeping security guard, attached with a caption that said "Acorda china vacilao", meaning "Wake up China. You idiot."

Kenedy, a £6.3 million signing from Fluminense has since apologised for his actions, saying:

"Hello my friends, just wanna say sorry if someone was sad because I used the expression "porra", was no racism, just an expression...big hug."

Image: Instagram/kenedy

But Chelsea felt obliged to make a lengthy statement on their official website, condemning Kenedy comments and stressing that their player has been "strongly reprimanded and disciplined".

"On July 22nd, Chelsea Football Club experienced the warmth and friendliness of Chinese fans at the National Stadium. However, we were surprised and disappointed that one day prior to the match, one of our young players, Kenedy, posted messages on his social media account that caused great offence and hurt the feelings of the people of China.

"Unfortunately, even though he quickly deleted the messages and apologised, and the club also apologised via our Chinese social media channels, the damage had already been done. Chelsea Football Club once again solemnly and sincerely apologises.

"Kenedy's actions were a mistake that he will learn greatly from. His behaviour does not represent the entire team and does not align with the club's high expectations and strict requirements of its young players. He has been strongly reprimanded and disciplined.

"Everyone at Chelsea Football Club has the utmost respect and admiration for China and loves our Chinese fans. It is because of this that the negative impact we have seen over the last two days has left us shocked and saddened. Once again, we sincerely apologise for the hurt caused to our Chinese fans as well as to the Chinese people.

"The match was a great cultural exchange event between China and Britain and the club is extremely grateful to China for its hospitality, which has brought us closer together in friendship. We very much hope to build on our strong relationship with our Chinese fans and friends, joining hands firmly with China in future for further cooperation

"We offer this apology with utmost sincerity. We have listened carefully to the criticism and will use the lessons learnt over the last two days to improve our processes in future."

Kenedy has made 22 appearances in all competitions for the Blues, scoring two goals.

(h/t 101 Great Goals)

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Chelsea, Football