切尔西终道歉|Chelsea apologizes to China for Kenedy's abusive posts

辱人者必自取其辱

    昨日，切尔西终于在其官方网站上用英语和汉语对球员Robert Kenedy的两条有争议的Instagram贴子做出了道歉。

    在这份官方道歉中，切尔西承认Kenedy的行为是一个严重的错误，并表示“俱乐部承担管教责任，不会容忍这种行为的存在，会对当事人作出严肃处罚”。

Chelsea Football Club issued an apology on Sunday to its Chinese supporters after its footballer, Robert Kenedy posted two videos which contained offensive words to China and its nationals.

Following its previous brief statement which Chinese netizens felt unacceptable, this 284-word apology was posted on its official website both in English and Chinese, explaining what had happened and making solemn and sincere apologies.

The Chelsea also cited an apology from Robert Kenedy’s Instagram, which was believed to be the third one from Kenedy. In the personal apology, Kenedy manifested his respect and admiration for the country and its people, and wrote “I would also like to apologise to my club Chelsea and all my companions who I have let down by my posts.”

The 21-year-old posted two videos through Instagram My Story ahead of the pre-season friendly facing Arsenal in Beijing, which slammed China and a Chinese security guard with insulting words.

In his first post, the video was captioned, “Porra China” in Portuguese. “Porra” was interpreted as a rude word in English while the other post showed a sleeping Chinese security guard with a comment, “Acorda China Vacilão,” which means “Wake up China.”

Since the two posts published, many netizens believed his comments had racist undertones and fought back on Kenedy’s official Facebook account @Robert Kenedy with an imitation of the caption in his posts.

In response to the backlash, Kenedy immediately issued two statements on Instagram My Story to clarify his previous captions in English and apologize to Chinese people both in Chinese and Portuguese. Meanwhile, the Chelsea Football Club also issued a statement on its verified Sina Weibo account to say sorry to the Chinese people.

However, Chinese netizens rejected these statements and flooded the post with more than 3,500 comments.

“[The Chelsea Football Club] has not published any statement for an apology. Just wrote a post on its Weibo account in Chinese and then translated to English,” @Biezaidaowohaole wrote the comment.

“The English word is ‘sorry’ but not ‘apologize.’ What do you mean?” @Xuebaluoke commented and felt dissatisfied with the attitude of the club.

“Please apologize sincerely and then get out. You are insulting Chinese people and your club. You are not welcomed,” @TUOniC posted and had got more than 2,000 likes for his reply to Chelsea’s statement.

China’s biggest newspaper group, People’s Daily has published an editorial on its website on Sunday by citing Chinese philosopher Mencius as saying “People insulting others are also insulted” to condemn Kenedy’s utterances.

The Brazilian footballer signed with Chelsea in 2015 and has made 24 Premier League appearances.