Chelsea issue lengthy statement after player’s “offensive social media posts”

Chelsea have apologised for Kenedy's social media activity this weekend.

The Blues winger came on for the final 20 minutes of his side's 3-0 preseason victory over Arsenal on Saturday afternoon in Beijing but it was his behaviour on Snapchat that made headlines. The Brazilian youngster took to the social media platform and offended Chinese football supporters with a pair of controversial posts. "Acorda China Vacilao," Kenedy captioned a photogrpah of a sleeping security guard. That roughly translates to: "Wake up China, you idiot." The 21-year-old also posted a selfie, with the caption "Porra China" which translates roughly to: "Fuck China." https://twitter.com/azpi1130/status/888813349001060352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportbible.com%2Ffootball%2Fnews-chelsea-forced-to-apologise-for-players-racist-instagram-post-20170723

Don't come to china again. Stupid kenedy. #SayNoToRacism pic.twitter.com/QXEAEJmT7u

— 王兴民 (@m6665323) July 23, 2017

On Sunday morning, a lengthy apology was posted to Chelsea's official club website and you can read it in full below...

"On July 22nd, Chelsea Football Club experienced the warmth and friendliness of Chinese fans at the National Stadium. However, we were surprised and disappointed that one day prior to the match, one of our young players, Kenedy, posted messages on his social media account that caused great offence and hurt the feelings of the people of China. "Unfortunately, even though he quickly deleted the messages and apologised, and the club also apologised via our Chinese social media channels, the damage had already been done. Chelsea Football Club once again solemnly and sincerely apologises. https://twitter.com/ChelseaFC/status/889095905273446400 "Kenedy’s actions were a mistake that he will learn greatly from. His behaviour does not represent the entire team and does not align with the club’s high expectations and strict requirements of its young players. He has been strongly reprimanded and disciplined. "Everyone at Chelsea Football Club has the utmost respect and admiration for China and loves our Chinese fans. It is because of this that the negative impact we have seen over the last two days has left us shocked and saddened. Once again, we sincerely apologise for the hurt caused to our Chinese fans as well as to the Chinese people. "The match was a great cultural exchange event between China and Britain and the club is extremely grateful to China for its hospitality, which has brought us closer together in friendship. We very much hope to build on our strong relationship with our Chinese fans and friends, joining hands firmly with China in future for further cooperation. "We offer this apology with utmost sincerity. We have listened carefully to the criticism and will use the lessons learnt over the last two days to improve our processes in future."