PARIS (AP) — The French soccer federation pledged Tuesday to file a complaint with FIFA over “racist and discriminatory remarks” by Argentina players in post-match chants about France's team after their Copa America title win.
Argentina beat Colombia 1-0 on Sunday at Miami Gardens, Florida. A video posted on Instagram by Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez, who plays for Chelsea, and widely viewed on X showed Argentina players appearing to sing about French players with African heritage.
One of Fernandez’s Chelsea teammates, France defender Wesley Fofana, posted the Argentina team video on his social media accounts Tuesday and called it “uninhibited racism.”
Fofana, who has family ties to Ivory Coast, is among several French players who are Black in the Chelsea first-team squad.
The same chants — by some Argentina fans — emerged before France and Argentina met in the World Cup final two years ago, which Argentina won.
“Given the seriousness of these shocking remarks, which are contrary to the values of sport and human rights, the FFF president has decided to contact its Argentinian counterpart and FIFA directly to file a legal complaint for racist and discriminatory remarks," the French soccer federation said in a statement on Tuesday.
The derogatory chants single out France players of African heritage, from several countries, and holding a French passport.
“The president of the French Football Federation, Philippe Diallo, condemns in the strongest terms the unacceptable racist and discriminatory remarks made against the players of the France team as part of a song sung by players and supporters of the Argentina team," the FFF added.
Diallo is a member of the executive committee of European soccer body UEFA with a growing reputation in the game's politics.
FIFA could not immediately confirm Tuesday if the French complaint had been filed.
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Argentina kitman Mario De Stefano holds up the trophy as he celebrates with players after defeating Colombia in the Copa America final soccer match in Miami Gardens, Fla., Monday, July 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan killed at least 31 people in two separate attacks on Monday and security forces killed 12 insurgents, officials said, in one of the deadliest days of violence in the restive Baluchistan province, with reports of other shootings and destruction in the area.
Twenty-three people were fatally shot after being identified and taken from buses, vehicles and trucks in Musakhail, a district in Baluchistan, senior police official Ayub Achakzai said. The attackers burned at least 10 vehicles before fleeing.
In a separate attack, gunmen killed at least nine people, including four police officers and five passersby, in Qalat district also in Baluchistan, authorities said.
Insurgents blew up a railway track in Bolan, attacked a police station in Mastung and attacked and burned vehicles in Gwadar, all districts in Baluchistan. No casualties were reported in those attacks.
Baluchistan has been the scene of a long-running insurgency in Pakistan, with an array of separatist groups staging attacks, mainly on security forces. The separatists have been demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. Although Pakistani authorities say they have quelled the insurgency, violence in Baluchistan has persisted.
The attack in Musakhail came hours after the outlawed Baluch Liberation Army separatist group warned people to stay away from highways as they launched attacks on security forces in various parts of the province.
But there there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest killings.
In a statement on Monday, the BLA only said it inflicted heavy losses on security forces in attacks in the province. Pakistan's military and government did not immediately comment on that claim. The group often provides exaggerated figures of troop casualties.
Separatists are known to ask people for their ID cards, and then abduct or kill those who are from outside the province. Many recent victims have come from neighboring Punjab province.
Uzma Bukhari, a spokesperson for the Punjab provincial government, denounced the latest killings on Monday, saying the “attacks are a matter of grave concern” and urging the Baluchistan provincial government to “step up efforts to eliminate BLA terrorists.”
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a statement that security forces in Baluchistan responded to the latest attacks on Monday, killing 12 insurgents. He said authorities would reveal who was behind the latest attacks after completing an investigation, but noted that “terrorists and their facilitators will have no place to hide” in the country.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Naqvi in separate statements called the attack in Musakhail “barbaric” and vowed that those behind it would not escape justice.
Later, Naqvi also condemned the killings in Qalat
In May, gunmen fatally shot seven barbers in Gwadar, a port city in Baluchistan.
In April, separatists killed nine people after abducting them from a bus on a highway in Baluchistan, and the attackers also killed two people and wounded six in another car they forced to stop. BLA claimed responsibility for those attacks at the time.
Syed Muhammad Ali, an Islamabad-based security analyst, said the latest killings of non-Baluch people are an attempt by separatists to harm the province economically.
Ali told The Associated Press that most such attacks are carried out with the aim to economically weaken Baluchistan, noting that “the weakening of Baluchistan means the weakening of Pakistan.”
He said insurgent attacks could hamper development work being done in the province.
Separatists in Baluchistan have often killed workers and others from the country's eastern Punjab region as part of a campaign to force them to leave the province, which for years has experienced a low-level insurgency.
Most such previous killings have been blamed on the outlawed group and others demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. The Pakistani Taliban also have a presence in the province, and they are closely connected to the BLA.
In a separate attack on Monday in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a roadside bomb killed four people and wounded 12 others in North Waziristan district, said local administration official Abid Khan.
The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, is a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.
Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan, and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
People look at a burnt vehicle which was torched by gunmen after they killed passengers at a highway in Musakhail, a district in Baluchistan province in restive southwestern Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Rahmat Khan)
People look burnt vehicles, torched by gunmen after killing passengers, at a highway in Musakhail, a district in Baluchistan province in southwestern Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Rahmat Khan)
