Manchester City became the first side to punch its ticket to the 2021 Champions League final on Tuesday, as the English champions-elect toppled French giants Paris Saint-Germain, 2-0, to win the tie on aggregate, 4-1. It was an impressive display by the Mancunians, but one moment that occurred in the second half of the match has drawn scorn from the football watching world.
PSG’s Ángel Di María, in a moment of frustration, stomped on the foot of Manchester City’s Fernandinho after the ball had rolled out of play and Fernandinho tried to keep him from taking a quick throw in. It was an obvious red card — Di María was promptly sent off — and in the aftermath, CBS commentator Jim Beglin repeated a racist trope that South American players have shorter tempers than other players to explain why the Argentine did this.
https://twitter.com/Alekzandur/status/1389681412261941249
Several minutes of ultra-chippy play occurred before Beglin addressed his comment, apologizing to anyone who “has taken offense.”
Beglin after this: “When Di Maria was sent off, I described it by using the word Latino. For anybody that’s taken offense, I do apologize – sincerely apologize.”
— Roberto Rojas (@RobertoRojas97) May 4, 2021
There are plenty of reasons why this is a completely ridiculous comment from Beglin, chief among them being that all of English football did a social media blackout over the weekend to raise awareness of the lack of attention that companies have paid to addressing racism on their platforms. Beglin himself participated in the blackout, but it is evident that he, much like the sport itself, have plenty of work to still do. Whether CBS will address Beglin’s commentary publicly or not remains to be seen, but plenty of fans were understandably upset.
