3 France players receive racist abuse on social media after WC defeat

NEW DELHI: France players -- Kingsley Coman, Aurelien Tchouameni and Randal Kolo Muani -- have been subjected to appalling racist abuse following their World Cup final defeat against Argentina in Doha.

Les Bleus lost a nail-biting final to Argentina on penalty kicks following a 3-3 draw after extra time.

During the thrilling clash, Kolo Muani missed a chance to win the game in extra time for France, while Tchouameni and Coman both missed penalties in the shootout.

The trio received numerous racist messages on social media after that. Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, later removed all such comments.

As per reports, Real Madrid's Tchouameni has limited comments on his Instagram posts. Kolo Muani of Eintracht Frankfurt turned them off.

"We don't want racist abuse on Instagram, and we've removed the disgusting comments for breaking our rules. We also want to help protect people from having to see this abuse in the first place, which is why we've developed Hidden Words, a feature that filters offensive comments and DMs, and Limits, which hides comments and DMs from people who don't follow you, or only followed you recently," Meta said in a statement.

"We're in touch with players and their teams directly, including since yesterday's final, to offer them support and help them turn on these tools."

Bayern Munich has also issued a statement of support for Coman, condemning the racist remarks made about him. "The FC Bayern family is behind you, King. Racism has no place in sport or our society," they said on Twitter.