Juventus Women’s team apologise after being condemned for offensive tweet

09 August 2021

The Juventus FC Women section shocked the social media world last Thursday as they published a racist tweet on their official account. The message, which showed one of their players making an offensive eye gesture, was removed of their channels within 20 minutes, but astonished thousands on social media and received massive replies.

The tweet attracted universal condemnation, with the club being accused of “blatant racism”. The offensive tweet showed Cecilia Salvai using her fingers to narrow her eyes while she also wore a red training cone on her head.

Juventus Women deleted the offensive tweet and posted an apology on Twitter which read “We sincerely apologise that our tweet, which was not meant to cause controversy or have any racial undertones, may have offended anyone. Juventus has always been against racism and discrimination.’

The club, very successful by winning the last four Women’s Serie A league titles, published an excuse the following day in a statement on their website: ‘We would like to express our deepest apologies for the social post that read as racially discriminatory content on the Juventus Women’s Football Twitter account yesterday.’

https://twitter.com/JuventusFCWomen/status/1423370664778600450

The statement continues: ‘Juventus immediately realised that the Club had committed an unforgivable mistake, and this mistake has seriously hurt the feelings of all people who oppose racial discrimination. For such a mistake, the Club assumes full responsibility for the occurrence of the incident and its serious impact.

Opposing racial discrimination and supporting the common development of multiple cultures are the principles that Juventus as a Club has always adhered to and continues to put into practice.

Juventus acknowledges this mistake, and the Club will make the most profound reflection and thorough review to prevent similar things from happening again.’

Later that evening, Orlando Pride posted a message on social media with the England striker Jodie Taylor wearing a T-shirt displaying the words “Stop Asian hate”.

💭#CHIvORL💭 pic.twitter.com/L4qCIoJOWm

— Orlando Pride (@ORLPride) August 5, 2021

Read here Juventus’ full statement