The photo, that was also included in a gallery that showcased the team’s practice that day, featured Cecilia Salvai, a Juventus defender, wearing a training cone on her head while pulling the back corner of her eyes up in a gesture that is often used to mock Asian eyes. Salvai was also wearing a plastic training cone on her head which many pointed out was meant to look like the Asian conical hats worn throughout Asia as a form of protection from the sun and rain. The caption that accompanied the racist picture were a set of emojis that imitated the racist gesture. The tweet came from the Juventus Women’s club official twitter account (@JuventusFCWomen) but was quickly deleted after 20 minutes and followed up with an apology. The apology wrote: “We sincerely apologize that our tweet, which was not meant to cause controversy or have any racial undertones, may have offended anyone… Juventus has always been against racism and discrimination… #DifferencesMakeThe Difference”

#DifferencesMakeTheDifference is the campaign Juventus started a few month ago on the International Day against Racial Discrimination.

Adidas, who supplies the club with all their gear and whose top Salvai was wearing in the picture, stated that they are talking to Juventus about the status of their partnership.