Chelsea must consult its French and other black players before doling out punishment to Enzo Fernandez

Chelsea central midfielder Enzo Fernandez is in hot water after a video clip from a live stream hit the internet. In fact, it was Blues' central defender Wesley Fofana who called the attention of the world to it, captioning the video "uninhibited racism" - written in French. 

Most Chelsea fans were enraged at the audacity of Fernandez to even put such offensive content on a public platform, and called for the club to act swiftly. 

Some others, though not in the majority - have tried to explain away Fernandez's video and defend the World Cup and Copa America winner. It's indefensible of course, and if that is not immediately obvious, then there are bigger problems. 

Chelsea is investigating the video clip and reports suggest the club is mulling over several possible next steps, one of which is selling the Argentine, another of which is terminating his contract. 

Chelsea, however, must consult with the French players in the squad, as well as other black players, requesting recommendations on what a satisfactory punishment will be. 

The club will need to take those recommendations seriously too, because if the West London club administers a punishment that the victims - the French and other black players - consider not strict enough, this could cause animosity between the black players and Enzo Fernandez, and could make it an untenable situation for the 23-year-old midfielder. This is if the situation isn't already untenable. 

It should be noted that while the video clip is yet to be translated, enough people understand the language being spoken in the video to have debunked the claims of racist chants - if there were indeed none - so the validity of racism is not in question.

The France Football Federation has reported the Argentina National team to football's highest governing body, FIFA, which has launched an investigation into the matter. 

The #NoRoomForRacism campaign in the Premier League became prominent at the back end of the 2019/20 season with Project Restart when the COVID-19 lockdown was lifted. Players took the knee at kickoff for 10 seconds before kicking the football. 

There is indeed no room for racism in football, but what that means when a player is caught in such a brazen act will be left to the various investigating bodies to decide, and Chelsea's decision needs to be the right one. 

Fernandez has posted an apology on his Instagram, and according to reports, has apologized to his Chelsea teammates, who would feel particularly hurt, as they would have expected that being his teammates, he'd have been more conscious of his behavior. 

These apologies would not go any distance in abating things, which is why the club should find out what the French players want the punishment to be. 

According to Fernandez, he was "caught up in the euphoria". Which is a worrisome thing for the former Benfica midfielder to say because it begs the question: if you're racially abusive and insensitive when you're extremely happy, how would you be when you're really angry?

This is big. Very big. Former Argentina international Javier Mascherano has granted interviews, and each of Chelsea's France internationals would be granting interviews too, no doubt.

Chelsea has a large number of French players and a larger number of black players who aren't French. Fernandez's offense is serious because if those things can be said about black players playing for France, then it can be said about black players playing for other countries too. 

Benoit Badiashile, Wesley Fofana, Axel Disasi, Malo Gusto, Christopher Nkunku, Malang Sarr, and Lesley Ugochukwu, are all French, and they are the direct victims of the racist chants. 

Chelsea also has other black players; Raheem Sterling, Trevoh Chalobah, Tosin Adarabioyo, Noni Madueke, Romeo Lavia, Nicolas Jackson, and Romelu Lukaku, are only a few.

The above-mentioned players, as well as the whole football world, would be watching eagle-eyed to see how Chelsea and FIFA handle Fernandez's racism case.