PARIS, June 2: Outspoken French television commentator Thierry Roland was branded a “racist” on Sunday by a French newspaper over remarks he had made about Koreans.

Veteran commentator Roland, covering the World Cup for French television station TF1, claimed before France’s recent 3-2 win in a warm-up over World Cup co-hosts South Korea: “Nothing resembles a Korean like another Korean, especially when they are all dressed like footballers, they all measure 1.70 metres.”

That observation came, the newspaper Journal de Dimanche noted, despite an official FIFA World Cup handout stating that Korean players are on average 1.80m, just three centimetres short of the French average height.

Roland, when tackled on the subject, insisted in the Journal de Dimanche: “When I said that I didn’t mean to be nasty.”—AFP