'Biased and discriminatory act...': Uruguayan players' association rips into English FA over Edinson Cavani's ban

The Uruguayan Football Players Association (AFU) on Monday ripped into the English Football Association (FA) on their three-match ban on Manchester United forward Edinson Cavani following a social media post where the Uruguayan referred to his friend as 'negrito'. Cavani deleted the post after being told about the meaning in English language and later apologised for it.

After investigating the incident, Cavani was suspended for three matches by the FA. The 33-year-old said that he used the world as an expression of affection to a close friend. The FA had said that the remark was “improper and brought the game into disrepute” and fined Cavani 100,000 pounds. Cavani has been asked to complete “face-to-face education” as part of his punishment.

The Uruguayan Football Players Association launched a scathing attack on English FA as they deemed the sanction on Cavani as a "discriminatory act against the culture and way of life of the Uruguayan people". The AFU further asked the English FA to "immediately overturn the sanction imposed" on Cavani.

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AFU, in its statement, passionately defended Cavani as they said that the veteran footballer never committed anything that could be "interpreted as racist".

Cavani, after accepting the sanction by English FA, said that while he apologised if someone was hurt by his post, he was disappointed by the charge handed out by the English governing body.

Even Atletico Madrid and Uruguayan defender Diego Godin along with Jose Maria Gimenez, Lucas Torreira, Luis Suarez among others, shared the official statement by AFU on his Twitter account.

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Full statement of the Uruguayan Football Players Association on Edinson Cavani:

"The undersigned members of the Uruguayan Football Players Association (AFU), composed of both the men and women professional and amateur sectors, including the different types, would like to state the following in response to the sanction imposed by the English Football Association on our colleague Edinson Cavani:

"Firstly, we must condemn the arbitrary conduct of the English Football Association. Far from condemning racism, the English Football Association has itself committed a discriminatory act against the culture and way of life of the Uruguayan people. The sanction shows the English Football Association's biased, dogmatic and ethnocentric vision that only allows a subjective interpretation to be made from its particular and excluding conclusion, however flawed it may be.

"Edinson Cavani has never committed any conduct that could be interpreted as racist. He merely used a common expression in Latin America to affectionately address a loved one or close friend. To sustain that the only way to obtain a valid interpretation in life is that which lies in the minds of the managers of the English Football Association is actually a true discriminatory act, which is completely reprehensible and against Uruguayan culture.

"We would therefore like to publicly defend Edison Cavani's impeccable character and of course our country's culture. We are all against any kind of discrimination; however, unfortunately, through its sanction, the English Football Association expresses absolute ignorance and disdain for a multicultural vision of the world, respectively of its plurality, by erroneously, unilaterally and rigidly imposing its anti-racist rules, the basis of which we support but are obviously not realistically applicable to the case in question here. It has not just punished one person, but also our whole culture, our way of life, which is truly a discriminatory and racist act.

"Lastly, we urge the English Football Association to review its decision-making processes related to these issues immediately so that it does not commit any similar injustice ever again. Its regulations should take into account the plurality of people's ways of life and cultures. The first rule to fight against racism is to respect such different ways of life and cultures.

"By virtue of the foregoing, we request the FA to immediately overturn the sanction imposed on Edinson Cavani and reinstate his good name and honour in the world that has been so unfairly tarnished by the reprehensible decision.

"Montevideo, 3 January 2021."