Konami announced today that it would be ending itsYu-Gi-Ohpartnership with Barcelona FC star Antoine Griezmann after a video surfaced showing Griezmann and fellow teammate Ousmane Dembele mocking Japanese workers during Barcelona’s 2019 preseason trip to Japan. This incident comes less than a month after Griezmann had been chosen to be an ambassador for theYu-Gi-Ohbrand.
The video shows Griezmann and Dembele sitting in their hotel room as Japanese technicians attempt to fix their television so that the pair can playPro Evolution Soccer—ironically another Konami offering. As a team of Japanese technicians work on their television, Griezmann, and Dembele can be seen mocking their appearance and the Japanese language. While the majority of the video has Dembele speaking, Griezmann can be seen laughing along and beginning a sentence before the video ends.
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Unfortunately, the recently surfaced 2019 video does not appear to be an isolated incident, as another video shows Griezmann once again exhibiting anti-Asian racist behaviour. In a short three-second clip, Griezmann can be seen sitting in an ice bath alongside teammates Ousmane Dembele and Samuel Umtiti. In the video, Griezmann can be seen affecting a stereotypical Asian accent while mocking the Chinese language. While Dembele and Griezmann both play for Barcelona FC, they also both playsoccer internationally for France, just recently participating in the Euro 2020 tournament before France was eliminated.
Obviously, the clips of Griezmann and his teammates are upsetting even as isolated incidents, but they also highlight the growing problem of anti-Asian sentiment, an issue that both individual esports players and companies likeBandai Namco have publicly addressedwithin the gaming community. As far as the videos involving Griezmann and Dembele, many commenters felt as though the punishment—with Griezmann only losing a small partnership withYu-Gi-Oh—did not go far enough, and without greater repercussions at the club or even international level, there is little to deter future incidents from occurring.
