The Uruguayan Soccer Players Association (AFU) released a statement on Monday showing their rejection of the sanction the English Football Association (Football Association) imposed on Manchester United forward Edinson Cavani for using the phrase “thank you, black boy” to a friend on his behalf . Instagram.
The AFU text states that the measure is arbitrary and “a discriminatory act against the culture and way of life of Uruguayans”.. “The sanction reveals a biased, dogmatic and ethnocentric view that recognizes no more than the reading it wants to impose from its specific and exclusive subjective interpretation, however wrong it may be,” the text adds.
They also point out that Cavani did not commit any act that could be interpreted as racist and that he only used a common phrase in the Uruguayan lexicon to refer affectionately to a loved one. “Pretending to be the only valid form of interpretation in life that is in the minds of the leaders of the English Football Association is in itself a truly discriminatory act, utterly reprehensible, against Uruguayan culture,” they stated.
The AFU said it aims to “defend the flawless figure of Edinson Cavani and, of course, the culture of our country”. According to the footballers, the FA expresses through its sanction: “ a total ignorance and disregard for a multicultural vision of the world, respectful for plurality, making mistakes through the one-sided and rigid application of its anti-racist rules, of which we support, but those all lights are not rationally applicable to the present case ”.
The text ends by asking the FA to review its decision-making processes on these issues and to lift the sanction imposed on Edinson Cavani “and return the world to its good name and honor, unfairly tainted by this reprehensible decision. . “
The statement was shared on their social networks by the footballers who are part of the Uruguayan team, as well as some former Celeste players.