Konami breaks up with Griezmann after a controversial video accused of racism in Japan

The Japanese company will ask FC Barcelona for explanations for the incident during a tour two years ag

Image: FC Barcelona.

Konami announced today that it is breaking ties with Antoine Griezmann after a video of the FC Barcelona star in the company of Ousmane Dembélé was released in recent days with an attitude accused of being racist in Japan . The parents of Pro Evolution Soccer had hired the French forward a few weeks ago as an ambassador for Yu-Gi-Oh, a trading card game published by Konami.

Previously, we had announced Antoine Griezmann as our Yu-Gi-Oh !. content ambassador. However, after recent events, we have decided to cancel the contract […] We believe that the philosophy of sport does not tolerate discrimination “, Konami assured this Wednesday through a statement where, in addition, they warn that they will ask FC for explanations Barcelona on this fact.

Both Griezmann and Dembélé have already apologized for the controversial videoYou are not the only sponsor angry about this situation. Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani has also shown his disappointment with the French star. “As a sponsor of the club and organizer of the tour, I am very sorry that the FC Barcelona players have made discriminatory comments,” the businessman tweeted . It should be noted that Rakuten was precisely the sponsor of this preseason tour that took place in the summer of 2019 .

At the moment we do not know if the story will grow. However, both Griezmann and Dembélé have publicly apologized to the sponsors as well as to the rest of the Japanese community. The Blaugrana team is one of Konami’s great partners for Pro Evolution Soccer, being the cover image in several of the latest editions of the soccer simulator.

This information comes a few days before the presentation of PES 2022 , scheduled for this next July 21, which will come under the commitment to a new strategic approach and the use of Unreal Engine as a graphics engine, leaving behind the Fox Engine. In recent days there have been several rumors, including a server demo .