Following Andre Onana‘s match-winning penalty save, Garnacho posted a celebratory picture of Onana and his teammates along with two gorilla emojis. The emojis were swiftly removed, and the post was deleted after it sparked outrage on social media.
The incident has ignited concerns about racial insensitivity, and the Football Association (FA) is expected to investigate the matter.
But FA has responded and won't take any action to Alejandro Garnacho's social media post: "We are satisfied with explanation and context it provides, so we will not be issuing disciplinary proceedings. We have reminded the player of his responsibilities around social media posts and the use of emojis."
'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 teammates – 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 to discuss other potential issues around the use of emojis and similar forms of messaging, and education that can be provided about them.'
After the incident occurred, Onana took to social media to back his teammate, writing: ‘People cannot choose what I should be offended by. I know exactly what @agarnacho7 meant: power and strength. This matter should go no further.’
And ten Hag pointed to Onana’s message as proof that his players are backing the youngster. Asked ahead of the Manchester derby if there was any update on the matter, he said: ‘Not in this moment. We are talking with the FA, I can confirm that and I want to emphasise we are together, we are united. You saw that with the post from Andre.’