Chelsea have issued an apology to the Chinese people after offensive social media posts by Brazilian youngster Kenedy.
The Blues said sorry to the country after the left-sided player wrote (in Portuguese) “f**k China” on his Instagram story accompanied by a photo of him grinning.
His bosses were clearly unimpressed with the 21-year-old undermining some of the goodwill built up during their pre-season tour and issued a grovelling apology.
A statement addressing the issue also confirmed that Kenedy had been disciplined for publishing the post, which was deleted soon after being posted.
Chelsea Football Club apology to Chinese people for player’s offensive social media posts https://t.co/lGanPiaJ6o
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 23, 2017
“Unfortunately, even though he quickly deleted the messages and apologised, and the club also apologised via our Chinese social media channels, the damage had already been done. Chelsea Football Club once again solemnly and sincerely apologises.
“Kenedy’s actions were a mistake that he will learn greatly from. His behaviour does not represent the entire team and does not align with the club’s high expectations and strict requirements of its young players. He has been strongly reprimanded and disciplined.
“Everyone at Chelsea Football Club has the utmost respect and admiration for China and loves our Chinese fans. It is because of this that the negative impact we have seen over the last two days has left us shocked and saddened. Once again, we sincerely apologise for the hurt caused to our Chinese fans as well as to the Chinese people.
“The match was a great cultural exchange event between China and Britain and the club is extremely grateful to China for its hospitality, which has brought us closer together in friendship. We very much hope to build on our strong relationship with our Chinese fans and friends, joining hands firmly with China in future for further cooperation
“We offer this apology with utmost sincerity. We have listened carefully to the criticism and will use the lessons learnt over the last two days to improve our processes in future.”
Here is the offending post:
