The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) has strongly condemned the “extremely unfortunate statements” by Arsene Wenger, FIFA’s director of football development, following his speech last May about “Europe” and “the rest of the world”. “Conmebol rejects and condemns the deeply regrettable statements of the senior FIFA official, who is very close to the presidency of the institution,” held by Switzerland’s Gianni Infantino, the federation said in a press statement.
Wenger said at a conference of German coaches that the “French striker, Mbappe, is of African descent, but he trained in Europe. If he had been born in Cameroon, he would not have become the striker he is today,” and that ” there is Europe and the rest of the world.” The Latin Federation took the view that “Wenger is ignorant of the valuable contribution of African and non-European players to world football, and that he shows a demeaning bias towards sporting institutions that are not in Europe existence invisible.”
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