lots of posturing, few results – Libération

Bruno Retailleau as a knight of LGBT + rights? The Beauvau tenant, known for having voted against the ban on conversion therapy, is still responsible for fighting discrimination linked to sexual orientation or gender. He would thus have decided to take this fight head on by tackling the nebulous but practical – it notably regularly serves as a test for all new liberticidal legislative measures – community of football ultras. The complex subject comes back to the forefront every two or three years, after homophobic acts in the stands capture media and political attention, players refuse to participate in an awareness day or a minister decides to prove that he is acting.

This Thursday, the Vendéen received football leaders to discuss and possibly find solutions in order to fight against this scourge still present in the stands. At the exit, his colleague from Sports, Gil Avérous, assured that he wanted to avoid “collective sanctions” and promoted the “nominal tickets”. Today, no active player in Ligue 1 or Ligue 2 has come out.

August 2019: professional matches stopped because of homophobic chants

History will record that AS Nancy Lorraine and Le Mans Foot Club, in Ligue 2, were the first French clubs to see their match stopped because of homophobic chants. In the 26th minute, the match referee interrupted the match after Nancy supporters insulted their neighbors and rivals from Metz, although they were not concerned by this match. While the stadium announcer, briefed in advance by a representative of the Professional Football League (LFP), asked the supporters to stop the homophobic chants, those concerned responded: “The League, fuck you!” The match then resumed a few minutes later.

The following week, repeated again. In Ligue 1 this time, the match between Brest and Reims was also interrupted for a few moments – one minute – at the start of the second half. At the time, Marlène Schiappa, Secretary of State in charge of gender equality, and Roxana Maracineanu, Minister of Sports, welcomed this decision.

The referees then rely on law 5 of the Laws of the Game which stipulates, in the part devoted to the “responsibilities of referees”, that the latter can “whether or not to interrupt the match due to the intervention of spectators or any problem occurring in the spectator areas”. On the UEFA side, a resolution was adopted in 2013, “aiming to combat racism and discrimination in football”. But this only seems to target racist incidents and not homophobic incidents.

September 9, 2019: “Considering that football is homophobic is still a bit strong”

A few days after these controversies, Noël Le Graët, who then chaired the French Football Federation, asked referees to no longer stop matches in the event of homophobic chants or slogans in the stands. “The methods of constantly punishing accentuate [les comportements problématiques]»then justifies the one who will be ousted a few months later for his sexist behavior. And to develop, without providing justification: “Considering that football is homophobic, and perhaps the image of homophobia in France, is still a bit strong. I don’t accept. That some spectators exaggerated… Yes! We will make sure that it disappears, but stopping matches is something else. The game is something complicated, beautiful when you look at it, and for the few people I don’t like, we’re going to make sure there are no more banners. But stop the match? No.”

November 16, 2023: “These idiots must no longer have places in our enclosures”

Heard by the deputies of the commission of inquiry into operational failures in the sporting world, the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra announces that “itThese idiots should no longer have any space in our speakers» and calls for an increase in judicial bans on stadiums. A few months earlier, she presented her plan to combat discrimination in the columns of Liberation. “Federations must take better account of the issues and rights of LGBT+ people, as some are already starting to do. We will ask them to provide training for judges and referees so that each time there is anti-LGBT discrimination, it is systematically identified on the match sheets and reported and counted. We also need to raise awareness among disciplinary commissions so that these acts are more systematically sanctioned. Overall, we are going to strengthen the disciplinary power of the federations.” Without concrete results to date.

May 2024: Hide this homophobia that I cannot see

Idrissa Gueye at PSG, Mohamed Camara in Monaco, Zakaria Abouklhal in Toulouse… Every year, the homophobia awareness day organized by the LFP – organized around May 17, the international day against homophobia – was the scene controversies, players hiding the rainbow logos on their jerseys or feigning an injury to avoid appearing with a tunic that they consider to be a “support for homosexuality”. Faced with this problem, the LFP finally found the solution in 2024: remove the rainbow from the jerseys and replace it with the word “homophobia” crossed out with a line of red paint and under which we find the word “ soccer”. That way, no more problems.

October 24, 2024: the return of the cessation of matches and the appearance of nominative tickets

“I would be for stopping the matches as soon as” that there is “homophobic songs”. Guest on France Inter a few days after new homophobic chants at the Parc des Princes, Bruno Retailleau put the option of abandoned matches back on the table. “It has become unbearable. We can no longer tolerate homophobic chants. I won’t take it anymore.” In the afternoon, after a meeting with football leaders in Beauvau, the Minister of Sports, Gil Avérous, assured that he wanted to avoid “collective sanctions” and promoted the “nominative tickets”. An innovative measure in football, tested with Olympique Lyonnais, PSG and OM. The minister also put the issue of match stoppages back on the table, “if necessary”. Less innovative, and not to the taste of Bruno Retailleau who judged that it was not “not the right solution” in the evening.

Updated at 7:46 p.m. with the opinion of Bruno Retailleau on stopping the matches.