CNN
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Bayern Munich have denounced racial abuse directed at French player Kingsley Coman after France’s World Cup final defeat on Sunday.
The Bundesliga titleholders claim Coman, who had his penalty saved by Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez in the match shootout, was the victim of racist abuse online. Argentina won the final 4-2 on penalties after the game ended 3-3 after extra time.
Coman has been with Bayern since 2015.
“FC Bayern strongly condemns racist comments towards Kingsley Coman,” the club tweeted on Monday. “The FC Bayern family is behind you, King. Racism has no place in sport or in our society.
Coman’s latest Instagram post, posted after last week’s World Cup semi-final, shows several comments supporting the forward and using the hashtag ‘#StopRacism’.
Asked about the abuse of Coman and other players on the platform, a spokesperson for Instagram’s parent company Meta said the company was in contact with undisclosed players and teams.
“We have removed these disgusting comments for breaking our rules,” the spokesperson said.
“We want to protect people from this abuse first and foremost, so we’ve developed features like Word Hidden, which filters out offensive comments and DMs, and Limits, which hides comments and DMs from people who are not following you or only recently followed you.
“We have been in contact with the players and their teams throughout their offering to offer support and help them use these tools,” the spokesperson said.
Coman scored the winning goal in the 2020 Champions League final as Bayern beat PSG 1-0 in Lisbon.
Last year, after England lost on penalties in the Euro 2020 final against Italy last year, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were racially abused after missing out shots on goal.
