Alleged racist World Cup TV comment in Argentina was manipulated
· Yahoo Sports
An Argentinian sports commentator has dismissed making an alleged racist statement during a World Cup broadcast and said his commentary was manipulated.
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"Over the past few hours, digitally manipulated audio and video footage has been circulated in which I am made to say something I never said,” commentator Nicolás Haase said on X.
“This is not a sentence taken out of context, but a deliberate distortion of the original content.”
Haase commented the match France v Senegal on Tuesday for the Dsports network.
The right-wing portal La Derecha Diario published a video clip in which the commentator says: "The first half in New Jersey is coming to an end: nil for France, nil for Senegal. The two African nations are currently level."
The last sentence is believed to have been added with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) because it is not part of the original DSports broadcast.
Some Right wing groups refer to the French team as African because several French players have African roots. La Derecha Diario for instance said after Tuesday's match that "France won the African classic against Senegal 3-1."
Several French media reported the alleged racism. Sports paper L'Equipe later withdrew its report and apologised.
The incident comes two years after Argentinian players were heard in a video shared on Instagram by midfielder Enzo Fernández making racist chants against French players of African descent on the team bus after winning the Copa America.
Fernández later deleted the video and apologised.