A Paraguayan politician has drawn widespread condemnation after posting racist comments on X following her country’s last-16 World Cup defeat to France.
Celeste Amarilla, of Paraguay’s Liberal Radical Party, directed her remarks at an unnamed woman, accusing her of “recklessness” and “brazen racism” and claiming her actions had overshadowed Paraguay’s tournament run. “Through your recklessness and your brazen racism, the entire world has already forgotten the journey and the historic effort that your players accomplished during this World Cup,” Amarilla wrote. “I will never allow people like her the freedom to spread their hatred and racism across the world.”
France advanced to the quarter-finals after Kylian Mbappe scored a winning penalty in the second half of Saturday’s tie. The result sets up a last-eight meeting with Morocco in Boston on Thursday. Mbappe, who scored two goals in fixtures against Senegal, Iraq and Sweden prior to the Paraguay match, now has seven goals in the tournament — level with Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Norway’s Erling Haaland at the top of the scoring charts.
Amarilla’s post came in the wake of similarly inflammatory remarks from former Paraguay goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert, who had described France as “a squad from Africa” in the build-up to Saturday’s fixture. French football federation president Philippe Diallo responded sharply, calling Chilavert a “disgrace”. “I condemn in the strongest possible terms the racist remarks made by Jose Luis Chilavert against the French national team, which undermine the values of respect, fraternity, and diversity in our football,” Diallo said. “If he was once a great goalkeeper, this man has now fallen into disgrace.”
Image credit: BBC Sport / BBC Sport
