- The Man United winger was criticized after sharing the message on his account
- However, the FA have confirmed that they will not punish the Argentine winger
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The FA have confirmed they will not charge Alejandro Garnacho after he used two gorilla emojis in a social media post about his Manchester United teammate Andre Onana.
Last month, a photo of United players celebrating with the Cameroonian goalkeeper after his crucial late penalty save in the win over FC Copenhagen appeared on Garnacho’s X account with the two emojis and was deleted after 15 minutes.
United boss Erik ten Hag and Onana himself both came out and claimed they fully supported their Argentina teammate while the FA investigated the matter.
The governing body have since conducted their investigation and revealed that the winger will not be charged for the social media post.
In a statement, they wrote: “We have completed an investigation following a recent social media post from Alejandro Garnacho.
The FA have confirmed they will take no action against Man United’s Alejandro Garnacho
Garnacho posted about teammate Andre Onana and added two gorilla emojis
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‘We solicited the player’s observations as part of our investigation, and he explained that the use of two gorilla emojis was intended to emphasize the strength and power of his teammates – specifically Andre Onana and Harry Maguire – after the crucial role they played in Manchester. United’s victory over FC Copenhagen.
‘We are satisfied with Alejandro Garnacho’s explanation and the context it provides, so we will not issue disciplinary proceedings on this occasion.
‘However, we have reminded the player of his responsibilities around social media posts and the use of emojis in particular, which can be interpreted in different ways.
‘We also plan to work with Kick It Out and the PFA to discuss other potential issues surrounding the use of emojis and similar forms of messaging, and any education that can be provided about them.’
After the incident occurred, Onana took to social media to support his teammate, writing: “People can’t choose what I should be offended by. I know exactly what @agarnacho7 meant: strength and power. This matter should go no further.”
And ten Hag pointed to Onana’s message as proof that his players support the youngster. Asked ahead of the Manchester derby if there was any update on the matter, he said: ‘Not at the moment. We are in discussions with the FA, I can confirm that and I want to emphasize that we are together, we are united. You could see that in Andre’s post.’
There had been expectations that the FA would punish Garnacho after them forbidden Manchester city‘S Bernardo Silva for one game and fined him £50,000 in 2019 for posting an image of a black cartoon character that they decided referred to a teammate Benjamin Mendy‘s race.
Former United striker Edinson Cavani was also banned for three matches and fined £100,000 the following year for calling a friend in Uruguay ‘negrito’ – which translates as ‘thanks little black man’ – under the Instagram post of a friend.
