Former England and Chelsea player Duberry slammed the club for being ‘weak’ in handling the racism situation that caused a stir in the dressing room.
Background
After the Copa America triumph, the video of Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez and his teammates canting racist songs that degrade African Americans as well as the transgender community went viral. Fernadez, who also plays for Chelsea, got backlash from his own dressing room when the players, including Fofana, called him out in public. Though the Argentine apologized later, the sports community didn’t take it well.
The expectation of Chelsea taking disciplinary action against the culprit has diminished as the English club chose to solve the issue internally.
Duberry Slams Chelsea For Not Punishing Fernandez
Duberry, who had worn the blue jersey once during his career, didn’t take it well. Dubrrey expected at least a strong statement from the club against the incident.
“I think it’s pretty weak. They could have put out more of a statement, so I’m not really satisfied with it – not that I’m looking for the player personally, but the crime that’s happened deserves a bit. A contribution, a little bit of money to a campaign is not really satisfactory in my opinion.”
“As club captain, he has to stand by the club and say it’s put aside, but when you go in there you have your relationship with players, your teammates – just like any office anywhere,” Duberry said.
Duberry also believes that it will be difficult to form a cohesive unit for Chelsea.
“Depending on the relationship beforehand, people will form their own opinions and be decent and professional on the pitch because they want to win but off the pitch – I don’t want to say it’ll split the camp – but it will have ongoing repercussions. I think it was a great chance for the club to show their stance towards the racist act.
“Even though they’ve taken great strides in getting rid of it, anything like this just takes it back to the old Chelsea. It was a great chance to say, regardless of anyone else, we don’t stand for it and this is what we’re doing – no matter the player, his status or the amount paid for him. It kind of washes over the people who are trying to clear the game of racism.
“You’ve got social media, but now you’ve got a player on the inside making a mockery, making jokes and then saying, ‘really sorry, here’s some money – case closed’. For a lot of people, it won’t be ‘case closed’, it will be ongoing and even though Chelsea have shut it up it’s not enough for a lot of people. They’ve had a lot of time to think about it as well and for this to be the outcome, it’s disappointing.
If it was a player who wouldn’t make a difference they could give a punishment and make a statement, but because this player has some importance to them, they don’t want to see him banned and then them still paying money. Whatever the thing is, because of the magnitude of the player, what he holds for the club and the value of him, I think that’s maybe why it’s gone this way.”
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