AFTER Argentina successfully defended their Copa America title at this year’s edition of South America’s prestigious international tournament, European Championship semi-finalists France may not have expected to be on the end of a racist and transphobic attack from some of Argentina’s players as they celebrated the win.

Chelsea and Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez posted a video on social media of himself and several teammates, whom it is more difficult to identify, singing a song that targeted French players of African heritage, and also used a transphobic slur.

It is telling that the chant only targets players of African origin and doesn’t mention those with other European backgrounds such as Antoine Griezmann (Germany) and Jonathan Clauss (Germany and Portugal). The chant was used as an excuse to be racist.

But why did the players think it was OK to post this video on social media for the world to see?

Though the decision to post the video itself will be criticised, it served to reveal a racism that still lurks below the surface throughout football and society. One that is increasingly being aired more boldly, as it might have been in the 1980s when racism in football, and in general, was more openly expressed.

Transphobia, meanwhile, is openly prevalent throughout the media and politics regardless of political alignment.

One of the reasons for the increase in emboldened discrimination is that many world leaders, political parties, and influential figures are themselves excusing racism or even standing on racist and transphobic policies.

Argentina’s government is an example of such “leadership” and it was no surprise that its president and vice-president came out in defence of Fernandez and the chant, rather than denouncing it.

“No country with a colonial history is going to put us down for a song sung on a field nor for speaking a truth that nobody wants to admit,” said the vice-president of Argentina, Victoria Villarruel.

“Enough of pretending to be offended, hypocrites. Enzo I am with you, Messi thanks for everything! Argentines always keep your heads high! Long live Argentina!”

She uses France’s colonial history to deflect from the issue, and football rivalry to excuse it, skirting around the problematic language used in the chant altogether before coming out with some nationalist rhetoric of her own.

It creates the idea that people are overly offended by everything. An idea often put forward by right-wing governments and figures which can potentially lead to things like transphobia and racism being excused, or worse, accepted, without thought for the people who are the targets of such discrimination.

When Argentina’s sports secretary, Julio Garro, suggested a high-profile figure from the Argentina national team, such as Lionel Messi or the president of the Argentine FA, Claudio Tapia, come out and apologise on behalf of the team, he was sacked by Argentina’s president, Javier Milei.

“The President’s Office reports that no government can tell the Argentina national team, the world champions and two-time Copa America champions, or any other citizen, what to comment, what to think or what to do,” Milei’s office said in a statement. “For this reason, Julio Garro ceases to be under-secretary of sports.”

Another factor contributing to emboldened racism and transphobia is the far-right’s promotion that their own views are now the acceptable centre ground.

A prime example of this is Elon Musk, the owner of the X (formerly Twitter) social media platform, tweeting to his 190 million followers that “...the Democratic Party has moved so far left that the Republican Party is now closest to the [centre].”

Simultaneously, Musk is using his influential media platform — his recently acquired ready-made form of cloud capitalism, which was already one of the biggest social media sites in the world — to openly support and campaign for the far-right Donald Trump and JD Vance Republican ticket. The New York Times even described him as “a central character in the presidential race.”

Any left-wing policies the Democrats may have are neither radical nor far-left. This is just a tactic used to soften the far-right and make things like the chant sung by the Argentina players appear more acceptable and make anyone pushing back against it appear like they are overreacting.

The same can be said of the attempts to paint the mainstream media as left wing when that certainly isn’t the case. Aligning with or making contributions to the Democratic Party doesn’t make a media outlet left wing. In the UK, since the Daily Mirror was bought up by Reach which also owns the Express, you are now reading the only left-wing newspaper in the country, and there are no left-wing news channels.

It’s a tactic that has been used by Milei, Trump, Nigel Farage, Jair Bolsonaro, Benjamin Netanyahu, Marine Le Pen, and other far-right figures to make their views appear more mainstream.

They have tried to skew the definition of labels such as “far right” and “far left” in their favour. In many ways, they have succeeded, to the point that using “left” or “right” in any political discourse has become meaningless.

Even pointing this out can be made to feel like some kind of: “Oh no it isn’t. Oh yes it is” pantomime to and fro.

Enzo Fernandez’s Argentina teammate Alexis Mac Allister warned that European media and politicians are somehow overly sensitive to racism and transphobia, commenting: “You have to be careful with what you say or do, especially in Europe where they are much more sensitive than here [in Argentina].”