Juventus apologise over deleted ‘slant-eyed’ social media post following online outrage
- Twitter account for Italian club’s women’s team posts picture of defender making gesture while wearing training cone on her head
- Tweet ‘was not meant to cause controversy or have any racial undertones’ club says
The Juventus women’s football team have apologised for a tweet showing one of their players making a discriminatory gesture often aimed at East Asians.
A photograph of sometime club captain Cecilia Salvai making a “slant-eyed gesture” while wearing a training cone on her head was tweeted by the club. It was deleted some 25 minutes later after social media outrage.
“We sincerely apologise that our tweet, which was not meant to cause controversy or have any racial undertones, may have offended anyone,” the club’s official Twitter account wrote.
“Juventus has always been against racism and discrimination,” they added with a “DifferencesMakeTheDifference” hashtag.
The club has been criticised for the wording of the apology as well as the original post.
The image of Italy international defender Salvai was reported to have stayed in an online gallery on the club’s website after the original tweet had been deleted.
While debate has raged over whether the image itself was racist, the original tweet’s use of emojis to caption the photograph was highlighted by critics of the club.
Many also questioned the thought process that led to the photograph being posted by the administrator of the club’s official account. Others asked sponsors Adidas and Jeep to take action.
Some users pointed out that the training cone is often referred to as a “cinesino” (“little Chinese”) in the Italian football lexicon, though this was not held up as an excuse by all of them.
The photograph was taken in Barcelona, where Juventus will play the Uefa Women’s Champions League winners for the Joan Gamper Trophy.
It is not the first time that the Italian club has been criticised for their response to an incident of discrimination.
When men’s first team striker Moise Kean was racially abused by fans of Cagliari during a 2019 Serie A match, Juventus captain Leonardo Bonucci said that the blame was “50-50” between the player and the supporters.
“Kean knows that when he scores a goal, he has to focus on celebrating with his teammates. He knows he could’ve done something differently, too,” Bonucci told Sky Sports Italia after the April 2019 win.
“There were racist jeers after the goal, Blaise heard it and was angered. I think the blame is 50-50, because Moise shouldn’t have done that and the Curva should not have reacted that way. We are professionals, we have to set the example and not provoke anyone.”
This is not the first time that a professional athlete has been pictured making such a gesture.
Notable examples including the Spanish men’s basketball team after they qualified for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and Serbian volleyball player Sanja Djurdjevic, who was banned for several games after making it during a Volleyball Nations League game with Thailand.
Several countries have reported a rise in ant-Asian racism since the Covid-19 pandemic.
