ο»ΏAlejandro Garnacho is being looked into by the FA because he used gorilla emojis in a social media post about Andre Onana, a player from Manchester United.
After the Cameroon goalie made a crucial late penalty save in United’s win over FC Copenhagen on Tuesday night, a picture of the players celebrating with him showed up on Garnacho’s X account with two emojis. The picture was deleted after 15 minutes.
The FA has contacted United to get the 19-year-old Argentine winger’s thoughts on the situation before deciding if it meets the requirements of Rule E3(1). Onana wrote on social media Thursday night to support his teammate: “People can’t pick and choose what it makes me angry.” I understand what @agarnacho7 meant: strength and power. This issue shouldn’t go any further.
The FA could still take action, though, because in 2019 they fined and banned Bernardo Silva for one game for posting a picture of a black cartoon figure that they thought made a racial comment about Benjamin Mendy, another Manchester City player. Edinson Cavani, a striker for United, was also fined Β£100,000 and banned for three games the next year for calling a friend in Uruguay “negrito,” which means “thanks little black,” below an Instagram post.
In Cavani’s home country of Uruguay, that word is used to show affection and is not meant to be insulting in any way. However, Cavani still deleted the comment and admitted to the FA charge. Cavani was fined money and banned from football, and the FA also made him go through a two-hour in-person training course.
Twelve months ago, Silva got a one-game ban for breaking the social media rules for players at Manchester City, which is next door to United. For his tweet about Mendy, the Portuguese player was fined Β£50,000 and banned from a game.
The midfielder posted a picture of Mendy as a child along with a Conguitos chocolate brand logo.
As soon as the post went live, it was taken down within an hour. Silva was surprised by the response and wrote, “Can’t even joke with a friend these days.”
The governing body of English football says that comments about a person or people’s ethnicity, color, race, country, religion, gender, orientation, or disability are “aggravating factors” under that rule.
