Inside Chelsea's civil war: How Enzo Fernandez's 'racist' song sparked a dressing room revolt - and what might happen to the £107m man at the centre of the storm

History tells us Chelsea are no strangers to internal strife but even for a club so accustomed to chaos and controversy, the extraordinary scenes of the last 36 hours will take some beating.

Enzo Fernandez, their £106.8million midfielder, lit the spark that soon turned into a raging wildfire. 

Footage showed the 23-year-old, alongside fellow members of the Argentinian national team, celebrating their Copa America triumph over Colombia in the early hours of Monday by enthusiastically singing a song which the French football federation have described as 'racist and discriminatory’ while promising to file a legal complaint to FIFA, football’s world governing body.

With that, civil war unfolded at Chelsea.

It had all started so calmly for new head coach Enzo Maresca. His first week of taking training had yielded only positivity with players telling their representatives how much they were enjoying his sessions, even the ‘double days’ which saw Maresca pull on a bib to personally participate in passing drills.

A big screen installed at Cobham by the side of the pitch told them the instructions to a 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test but largely, the focus was on perfecting passing patterns with even the goalkeepers involved in rondos. 

Already there is a feeling that Maresca’s tactical instructions are clearer than those of his predecessor Mauricio Pochettino, the most common words out of the 44-year-old Italian’s mouth over the week being ‘well done’ whenever he saw something he liked.

Fun was had also. There was a game of tag in which the players were tasked with touching each others’ backs, Reece James telling off Tosin Adarabioyo when he cheated by leaving the coned square to evade capture. 

There were 'forfeit tunnels' where team-mates would line up to playfully slap the man sprinting through the middle, Wesley Fofana and Malo Gusto landing almighty whacks on Levi Colwill from either side. 

There was a long jump competition in which Christopher Nkunku particularly impressed as it was joked he ought to be at the Olympics in Paris.

Their reward at the end of this exhausting-but-beneficial week was a rest day on Sunday as they watched Marc Cucurella’s Spain pip Cole Palmer’s England in the final of Euro 2024.

All was calm, but then came the storm, with Mail Sport revealing how Chelsea had launched an investigation into the Instagram video uploaded by Fernandez.

Chelsea's squad is made up of a significant number of footballers from France, such as Fofana, Gusto, Nkunku, Lesley Ugochukwu, Axel Disasi and Benoit Badiashile.

Sources speaking anonymously to Mail Sport said there was fury among the French contingent as they began to unfollow Fernandez on Instagram, while Fofana went one further by uploading a screenshot of his team-mate with the caption: ‘Football in 2024: uninhibited racism.’

It was a disaster for Chelsea – one of their players publicly accusing another of racist behaviour – and came on the same day that the club were advertising for a new ‘head of football communications’ on LinkedIn. 

Fofana’s reward for speaking up was to have his own Instagram littered with abuse, much of it racial until the Frenchman finally suspended his comments section after seeing it turn into a total cesspit.

Fernandez tried to make amends with his team-mates with a private apology sent to the squad via their internal messaging system. 

He then apologised publicly on social media, a few fans mocking his odd choice of Comic Sans as he wrote: ‘The song includes highly offensive language and there is absolutely no excuse for these words. I stand against discrimination in all forms and apologise for getting caught up in the euphoria of our Copa America celebrations. That video, that moment, those words, do not reflect my character or beliefs. I am truly sorry.’

Chelsea’s own statement followed, the reason for their delay being that they wanted to speak to Fernandez first in order to verify the video was real. 

Clubs have been spooked by a rise in fake footage created using Artificial Intelligence, such as those of Gareth Southgate during Euro 2024. 

Once they had heard from Fernandez, they announced: ‘Chelsea Football Club finds all forms of discriminatory behaviour completely unacceptable. We are proud to be a diverse, inclusive club where people from all cultures, communities and identities feel welcome. We acknowledge and appreciate our player’s public apology and will use this as an opportunity to educate. The club has instigated an internal disciplinary procedure.’

The crisis continued when two Chelsea strikers posted contrasting messages to their Instagram pages. 

Nicolas Jackson seemingly showed solidarity for his friend by posting a picture of Fernandez playing with a young black mascot. 

David Datro Fofana followed with a post of his own which read: ‘The football that I like is multi-ethnic. Racism in all its forms should be condemned in the strongest possible terms. These acts have no place in football or even anywhere else. This fight really needs to be taken seriously by everyone involved in this sport.’

Now, Chelsea are less than seven days from travelling to the United States, a trip in which Fernandez is unlikely to join the group. 

FIFPro’s recommendation is that professional footballers are allowed a four-week break, though the individual can choose to cut short his holiday of his own volition. Mykhailo Mudryk was with Ukraine when they exited Euro 2024 on June 26 but reported to Cobham for his first day with Chelsea on July 8, keen to impress Maresca.

Other Premier League clubs with representatives in the Argentinian national team have avoided commenting, largely because there is no proof their player was involved in the controversial chanting whereas Fernandez was the one holding the mobile phone. 

Like Chelsea, FIFA are now looking into it all, while the Football Association are not currently involved.

The likelihood is we will see Fernandez sporting the Chelsea shirt again, potentially taking his place on the pitch alongside French players offended by his behaviour. Signed in January 2023, he was an expensive asset brought in on an eight-and-a-half year contract from Benfica, previously reported to be worth £180,000 per week.

It is not yet known what punishment he could face upon the conclusion of Chelsea's investigation, whether a fine or an educational course would be considered sufficient in response to the incident which occurred outside of the club environment.

For now, Maresca can only hope the harmonious vibe created over his first week of training will continue to blossom as they prepare for the new Premier League season, though it would appear Fernandez has serious work to do in order to earn the forgiveness of his peers.