Juventus Women's Team Apologizes for Racist Twitter Post
August 5, 2021
The Juventus women's Twitter account sent an apology after a racist post earlier Thursday:
Juventus Women @JuventusFCWomenWe sincerely apologise that our tweet, which was not meant to cause controversy or have any racial undertones, may have offended anyone. Juventus has always been against racism and discrimination. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DifferencesMakeTheDifference?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DifferencesMakeTheDifference</a>
The initial post, which has since been deleted, featured a picture of a player with a cone on her head while pulling at the corners of her eyes, seemingly mocking Asian people.
The post went viral and had more than 7,500 replies before it was deleted 25 minutes later, per TMZ Sports.
This is only the latest incident of anti-Asian racism in world football.
France and Barcelona teammates Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele were seen on video mocking Asian staff at a hotel during a Japan tour in 2019.
There has been a dramatic rise in harassment and hate crimes against Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Italian football has also had its share of racist abuse, including at Juventus when Moise Kean faced offensive chants from road fans in 2019. Teammate Leonardo Bonucci said at the time he believed Kean shared the blame for the racist chants.
The clubs of Serie A released a joint statement in 2019 saying they have a "serious problem with racism" and calling for stricter regulations and greater education to end racist abuse.
