Outrage after ‘racist’ photo with ‘blatant’ anti-Asian sentiment shared on Juventus Women’s Twitter

The Juventus Women’s football team have come under fire after an incredibly offensive post was shared by their official Twitter account.

An image of a person wearing a football cone on their head while pulling back their eyes was posted on August 5. The image, taken during a training session, was also accompanied by an emoji caption that emulated the gesture.

The picture was met with extreme condemnation for its “blatant” anti-Asian racism.

The post received thousands of comments and quote retweets before it was deleted by Juventus Women.

One person on Twitter replied to the now-deleted post, saying: “This is racist. This picture shouldn’t have been taken, let alone UPLOADED. It’s not that hard to understand.”

In response to the backlash, Juventus posted an apology tweet, claiming the post was not intended to have “racial undertones”.

The tweet from Juventus said: “We sincerely apologise that our tweet, which was not meant to cause controversy or have any racial undertones, may have offended anyone.

“Juventus has always been against racism and discrimination. #DifferencesMakeTheDifference.”

The apology has also been met with incredulity from social media users as they failed to accept that the image was not intended to be racist.

Someone replied: “The worst part about this statement is you describing blatant racism as ‘racial undertones’.”

Another said: “Undertones? Bruh this is just straight up racist.”

Some Twitter users attempted to explain why the apology tweet was also so insulting.

One person explained: “If you tweet "may have offended" you’re not actually apologising. The photo should have never been taken letalone posted. Utter disgrace.”

Another person mocked: “We have always been against racism, except for 20 minutes ago. And several other times before that.”

In response to the controversy, US women’s football team Orlando Pride posted an image of their player wearing a t-shirt that read “Stop Asian hate”.