Man City defender Benjamin Mendy has reportedly written to the FA to defend his teammate Bernardo Silva after his tweet sparked a racism row.
Silva posted a childhood picture of Mendy and compared him to a black cartoon character who appeared on the packaging of Conguitos chocolate bars in Spain, as seen in the tweet below.
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However, Mendy himself even responded to the tweet and laughed about it, while Silva later deleted it and has since faced a backlash from anti-racism campaigners.
As noted by The Times, the FA felt it was necessary to launch an investigation into the matter and Silva explained his actions to them on Thursday as he looks to avoid a six-match suspension.
However, it’s added that Mendy also wrote a letter as part of the defence offered by Man City against the accusation of racism as he is said to have insisted that he wasn’t offended and defended Silva given that they’ve known each other since their days at Monaco.
In turn, it remains to be seen what the FA decide and whether or not they believe that further action is necessary, with Man City boss Pep Guardiola also defending his player this week, as per the Times.
“It was just a joke,” Guardiola said. “Benjamin is like a brother to Bernardo, and Bernardo is like a brother to Benjamin. If the people believe that Bernardo is [racist] they are completely wrong. They judged one joke; I judge three years every single day with him and how he is.”
Ultimately, the FA have a job to do and this isn’t reflecting well on anyone concerned. Nevertheless, taking the circumstances of the tweet into consideration, perhaps Silva’s biggest lesson is that he can’t run the risk of causing any offence to others and if Mendy isn’t offended, then these should be limited to private jokes between the two long-time friends.
You people are weird on this earth. So Bernardo Silva tweeted a childhood photo of Mendy alongside the mascot of Spanish chocolate conguitos and said "guess who?"
Mendy laughing, responded"1-0". But the vigilantes came for Silva. Crying where there is no harm done or intended. pic.twitter.com/DsBDRkuYR6
— Ijele ji ?d? Ag? (@el_shinkafi) September 22, 2019
