JAPANESE video games firm Konami said Wednesday it was dropping French striker Antoine Griezmann as a brand ambassador over a racism row involving the Barcelona striker and teammate Ousmane Dembele.

Dembele had to apologize earlier this week for making racist comments in a video circulating on social media.

Dembele, 24, offered his “sincere apologies” Monday after a 42-second clip, which he appeared to have made on Snapchat in 2019, was leaked and widely shared on the Internet.

The clip shows Dembele, on Barca’s pre-season tour of Japan two years ago, talking to teammate Griezmann as he waited for local technicians to connect a game console to a television in their hotel room.

Dembele refers to “ugly faces” as the technicians work and appears to mock the Japanese language before asking: “are you advanced in your country or not?”

In a Wednesday statement, Barcelona said the club “deeply regret” how two of its star players “displayed a lack of respect in their attitude towards several employees in the hotel in which they were staying.

Offering a public apology, the club warned it reserved “the right to take the internal measures that it considers appropriate.”(SD-Agencies)