Tue, July 07, 2026
French Football Federation to file criminal charges over racist attack on Mbappé by Paraguayan senator
The French Football Federation (FFF) has announced plans to file criminal charges after a Paraguayan senator, Celeste Amarilla, who represents the centrist Authentic Radical Liberal Party, carried out a racist attack on French player Kylian Mbappé which included her calling him a “colonised Cameroonian, pretending to be French, resentful, newly rich, arrogant and ugly” on X. Amarilla also added that Mbappé was a “brute who had not learned to write” and that Paraguayan players should have inflicted violence on him after the match.
France and Paraguay played each other on 4 July. The match was marred by Paraguay’s “shameless skulduggery in an ill-tempered match,” as described by Richard Jolly from The Independent. For example, when Paraguay's Diego Gómez fouled French substitute Désiré Doué and a penalty was awarded to France, Paraguay attempted to unsettle Mbappé by scuffing up the penalty spot before his kick.
“It was, according to interpretation, either disgraceful, mildly irritating or a justified way of trying to stop a superior opponent. Every other opponent had conceded at least three times to the tournament favourites...There were offences that stopped short of being deemed violent conduct. There were others designed to induce a violent reaction from France,” Jolly elaborated.
“I do not want to criticise Paraguay, each team plays the way they want, but there were some insults from the other bench I could have done without,” said French manager Didier Deschamps. “There is a bit of unfairness that we felt,” he said, possibly downplaying the situation, according to Jolly.
However, their attempts to unsettle Mbappé proved futile, as his penalty proved the difference with France winning 1-0 and advancing to the quarter-finals. “I am really proud the entire team kept its cool. If we did respond to provocation it could have been bad,” said Deschamps, with Mbappé laughing off attempts to antagonise him. “I asked the two biggest guys to go and surround Kylian at the end, because they were going to hack him down,” the French manager claimed.
27-year-old Mbappé, France’s Captain, was born in Paris to a Cameroonian father and mother of Algerian origin and is on track to be the 2026 World Cup’s top goalscorer. He responded to the attack with the following statement, defending not only himself but the Paraguayan players: “Madame Celeste Amarilla, you are a despicable woman and unworthy of your position. You do not represent Paraguay, that country which has sweated passion and honour throughout the competition…
Through your recklessness and your brazen racism, the entire world has already forgotten the journey and the historic effort that your players accomplished during this World Cup, making way for an incompetent woman who gives the worst possible image of her country. I will never allow people like her the freedom to spread their hatred and racism across the world.”
Amarilla responded to this by threatening Mbappé with legal action. Outlets have reported her response as: “You don't know me, you have no idea who I am and you have no right to say that I am a despicable woman, unworthy of the position I hold. I am a senator of the Paraguayan Nation elected with votes…
Who are you to try to humiliate or despise me if you don't even know me? Pure and hard gender violence. Precisely you, who are considered a defender of women and gender, use contempt against a woman and do not attack her value, nor her preferences, nor my preferences, but you attack my condition as a woman and my political performance. Retract with me, pay tribute to French citizenship and apologize, otherwise I may initiate legal action for gender violence.”
However, she also backtracked, according to The Times, claiming: “My social media posts were written in the heat of the moment. My mixed-heritage indigenous and Spanish blood was boiling in my veins…Soon afterward, I regretted responding with the same insults that I myself receive because of being mixed-race and Latina.”
The French Football Federation (FFF) has announced plans to file criminal charges and described Amarilla’s attack as “utterly abhorrent and unacceptable.”
It also stated: “These remarks are criminal and reprehensible. They must be prosecuted here as elsewhere. The FFF is reporting the matter to the public prosecutor’s office with a view to legal proceedings…
These remarks bring shame upon those who make them and those who disseminate them. The players of the French national team represent France; it is our country that is being insulted.”
The Paraguayan government said it “deplores and rejects the statements” made by Amarilla, saying they are “contrary to the values and principles that inspire peaceful coexistence and respect for human dignity that our country promotes…
The statements of the aforementioned legislator correspond exclusively to the exercise of her individual responsibility as a member of the Legislative Branch and in no way represent the position of the Government of the Republic of Paraguay or the Paraguayan people.”
French President, Emmanuel Macron, stated: “Another goal for Kylian Mbappe. Against racism this time. All my support. When words smear, our values respond: dignity, respect, fraternity.” Emmanuel Grégoire, Mayor of Paris, voiced: “The France team looks like France, and Kylian Mbappé is one of the greatest representatives of our country.”
Basilio Nunez, leader of Paraguay’s legislature, stated: “The Paraguayan national team gave their all with honour and grit at the World Cup. Politics and sports should be kept separate." However, that is proving increasing difficult within the tournament as a whole.
