He was found guilty “public insults” of a racist nature. Football coach Bernard Casoni – also had around thirty caps for the Blues in the 1980s and 1990s – was sentenced this Thursday, January 9 by the Orléans Criminal Court for having made racist remarks in September 2023, when he coached US Orléans, a third division football club. He would have to pay a fine of 25,000 euros, including 15,000 euros suspended, and pay 1,501 euros in compensation to the civil parties, including SOS Racisme, Sportitude and Licra.
The former Marseille player, now 63 years old, was fired from his position at the head of the Orléans team after Ici – formerly France Bleu – Orléans published a statement in which he affirmed that his players were not “no more stupid than North Africans” : “I did it in all the clubs I went to, I did it with North Africans! They are no more stupid than North Africans, eh…”he declared during a press conference regarding the adherence of his workforce to his game plan.
“How can we pretend that it doesn’t hurt, that it isn’t insulting?”
A preliminary investigation was opened by the courts and Bernard Casoni apologized, regretting “inappropriate remarks” and defending himself from being “racist”. During his trial in November, a fine of 30,000 euros, including 20,000 with a simple suspended sentence, was requested against him. “There is a hierarchy of intelligence based on racial origin. How can we pretend that it doesn’t hurt, that it isn’t insulting?”asked the representative of the public prosecutor, Elena Chevallier.
For Me Guillaume Traynard, who defended the interests of SOS Racisme and Sportitude, civil parties to the trial, these remarks are “a cliché where the North African population is assimilated to a population less intelligent than the others”. Defense lawyer Emmanuel Daoud pleaded for acquittal and refuted “the label of a good redneck, of a good racist, of someone who could not repress racist words”. He claimed that the words used by Bernard Casoni referred to his long experience as a coach in the Maghreb.
Since September 2024, Bernard Casoni has bounced back as the new coach of SC Gagnoa, a club in the Ivorian second division. He has also coached several seasons in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as well as in France in Bastia, Auxerre and Lorient in particular.
