MADRID, 12 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
FC Nantes and Nice strongly condemned the offensive chants that the fans of the red and black team uttered about the figure of the late Argentine striker Emiliano Sala during Wednesday’s game at the Allianz Riviere.
A sector of the stands of the Nice stadium, where the most radical fans usually gather, began to sing in their match against Saint-Etienne ‘He’s an Argentine who doesn’t swim well’. They chose to do it in minute 9, in relation to the number he wore in Sala, who died in a plane crash in January 2019 when he was going to close his transfer to Cardiff, in Nantes, who last weekend snatched the Cup from them from France.
“FC Nantes discovered with horror the content of the songs of certain OGC Nice supporters and can only strongly condemn such actions that degrade the memory of Emiliano Sala,” Nantes said in a statement.
The Cup champion thanked both Nice and his coach, Christophe Galtier, “for their support and their firm condemnation of such comments” and showed their full support “to Emiliano’s family and loved ones.”
“Human stupidity has no limits, I am scandalized, these people have nothing to do in the stadiums. They should be prohibited, it’s shameful, I feel sorry for the family. I knew that the fans could be idiots, but these are donkeys,” he asserted. Antoine Kombouare, Nantes coach.
“The OGC Nice condemns in the strongest terms the song about Emiliano Sala heard on Wednesday night at the Allianz Riviera. The club does not recognize its values or those of the entire red and black family in this unthinkable and abject provocation of a minority of its followers The club sends its support to the family and loved ones of Emiliano Sala” stressed the red and black team.
In addition, his coach, Christophe Galtier, was very critical of that sector of his fans in the press conference after the match. “I have no adjectives to define what I heard. On behalf of my dressing room, my coaching staff, my medical staff, the players, we would like to apologize to Emiliano Sala’s family and to FC Nantes,” he said.
The French coach, who also criticized the chants towards Stephanie Frappart, referee of the Cup final, regretted that it was not “only three people” who sang offensively. “Sometimes it is said that what you see in the stadium is a reflection of society, because if this is our society, we are screwed, for me it is surreal, I have no words, that they stay at home, you can not hear that in a stadium, if it’s to insult the dead, let them stay at home, we’ll win without these people,” he said.