The Football Association will not take any action against Alejandro Garnacho over the Manchester United winger’s use of gorilla emojis in a post about Andre Onana.
Two weeks ago the goalkeeper produced a stoppage-time penalty save to secure a key 1-0 victory against Copenhagen in the Champions League group stage.
Garnacho later uploaded a photo on X, formerly known as Twitter, of the United players celebrating with Onana, along with a caption featuring two gorilla emojis.
![Andre Onana's Manchester United team-mates congratulate him on his penalty save](http://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/7e8e1b5118edab78bc4071cfa8aa2792Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjk5NDU5MDQ0/2.74294566.jpg?w=640)
The post was quickly deleted and the Cameroon international defended his team-mate, whom he said was trying to express “power and strength” and added: “This matter should go no further.”
The FA has punished players in the past for making racial references on social networking sites but will not be taking any action against Garnacho.
An FA spokesperson said: “We have concluded an investigation in relation to a recent post on Alejandro Garnacho’s social media.
“We sought the player’s observations as part of our investigation, and he explained that the use of two gorilla emojis was intended to highlight the strength and power of his team-mates – specifically Andre Onana and Harry Maguire – following the pivotal roles that they played in Manchester United’s win over FC Copenhagen.
“We are satisfied with Alejandro Garnacho’s explanation and the context that it provides, so we will not be issuing 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 intend to liaise with Kick It Out and the PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association) to discuss other potential issues around the use of emojis and similar forms of messaging, and education that can be provided about them.”
Garnacho has been included in the 23-man squad for the reverse fixture against Copenhagen at Parken on Wednesday evening.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here