Shameful. All that can be said to describe how two footballers of Barcelona carried themselves in 2019 while being on a world pre-season tour with their club.Frenchmen Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann made rather awful comments regarding workers in the hotel where Barcelona were staying.After video clips went viral on social media, two footballers have been accused of making racist remarks towards hotel workers during Barcelona’s pre-season tour to Asia two years ago.Anelka to Mbappe: ‘If you want to win the Ballon d’Or, you have to compete with the best’Dembele recorded a video via Snapchat while the aforementioned hotel workers were fixing his game console.”All these ugly faces just so you can play PES, aren’t you ashamed?” Dembele allegedly said to Griezmann.“What kind of backward language is that?” and “Are you technologically advanced in your country or not?” he later added.Griezmann’s words are inaudible but the Barcelona forward can be heard laughing throughout.Dembelé being racist to asian hotel employeespic.twitter.com/vGZFSXryLs— Hamza (@lapulgafreak) July 2, 2021 Twitter saw Griezmann denying accusations of racism and apologising for the clip in which the two have been seen offending the workers.”I have always been committed against any form of discrimination,” wrote Griezmann.”For the past few days, some people have wanted to pass me off as the man I am not. I firmly refute the accusations made against me and I am sorry if I could offend my Japanese friends.”Je me suis toujours engagé contre toute forme de discrimination. Depuis quelques jours certaines personnes veulent me faire passer pour l’homme que je ne suis pas. Je réfute avec fermeté les accusations qui me sont portées et je suis désolé si j’ai pu offenser mes amis japonais.— Antoine Griezmann (@AntoGriezmann) July 5, 2021 Instagram saw Dembele share a statement in attempt to clarify his remarks and express his remorse towards the comments made regarding the hotel staff.”In recent days, a private video dating in 2019 has circulated on social networks,” wrote Dembele.”The scene takes place in Japan, but it could have taken place anywhere on the planet and I would have used the same expressions.##EDITORS_CHOICE##”These expressions were not directed towards any particular community. Sometimes I use these types of expressions in private, with friends, regardless of their origin.”Now this video has been released, and I understand that it may hurt the people present in the images. In fact, I offer my sincere apologies.”It is yet to be seen if the club will penalize the players. Barcelona have been sponsored by Japanese retail giant Rakuten since 2016 and and they also have massive cooperation with the Japanese Kobe-based club Vissel (whose members are Andres Iniesta, Thomas Vermaelen and Kenya’s own Ayub Timbe).
