“We need support. » On the other end of the phone, Patrice Maurel, technical director of US Colomiers. A former professional player who played for TFC, Istres or Gueugnon, the forty-year-old is issuing an alert to the governing bodies of French amateur football. On the night of October 28 to 29, the cars of an educator and his manager, working with the under-11s of the club in the Toulouse region, were set on fire in front of their home. All between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. and even though they live about twenty km from each other.
“We are not at the moment of suspicion,” says Patrice Maurel when discussing the facts. The presumption of innocence remains a pillar of French justice. There is an ongoing investigation, already very well underway. We hope that the culprits will be quickly judged. » It remains that eyes are turned, almost necessarily, towards the parents and/or relatives of certain kids from US Colomiers football in view of the functions occupied by the two educators. A disagreement gone wrong? “At this age, football is played with eight players and there are substitutes. There are arguments, recalls Patrice Maurel. Fortunately, this does not result in burned cars. This is shocking. »
“I see the climate deteriorating”
A complaint was filed by the two affected supervisors. The club will join the proceedings in due course if the investigation allows. In the meantime, US Colomiers football has made a decision: the suspension of all of its activities until November 11. “What happened, we consider that it is above the sporting results, which is why we decided to put ourselves on standby,” declared the president, Florian Aït-Ali, to France Bleu. A choice approved and supported by the Occitanie Football League, and the district of Haute-Garonne, which provided their support to US Colomiers in a press release.
“We are trying to reassure educators who have experienced this trauma,” breathes Patrice Maurel. The alert about violence in the fields is not new. I am a former pro player, trainer at Clairefontaine… I see the climate deteriorating with the seasons around the children. If you pick up your phone and call 50 educators, everyone will report the same thing. It is a position for which I have the greatest respect. We need support from the authorities. But football is society and we can clearly see the climate in which we operate. »
Fortunately, the support of parents and other club supervisors seems to be there. “It’s human,” concludes Patrice Maurel, hoping that this affair will be the first and last for US Colomiers football.
