Chelsea apologises to Chinese fans over Kenedy's offensive posts

Chelsea issued an apology Sunday to the people of China over Kenedy's conduct on social media after the Brazilian wing-back posted messages that "caused great offence."

Kenedy, 21, posted videos on Instagram captioned with inflammatory messages toward the Chinese, including one of a security guard resting against a wall captioned, "Wake up, China. You idiot."

The Blues, on tour through Asia for pre-season, quickly distanced themselves from Kenedy's message, which was quickly deleted. The club said the conduct "does not align with the club's high expectations and strict requirements of its young players" and added Kenedy has been "strongly reprimanded and disciplined."

"Everyone at Chelsea Football Club has the utmost respect and admiration for China and loves our Chinese fans," the club wrote. "It is because of this that the negative impact we have seen over the last two days has left us shocked and saddened. Once again, we sincerely apologise for the hurt caused to our Chinese fans as well as to the Chinese people."