Red card against homophobia! During a Ligue 1 match on October 19, 2024, homophobic chants were echoed at the Parc des Princes: “The Marseillais are p***s…”, could be heard for many minutes.
Gil Avérous, the Minister of Sports, asked the leaders of French Football — the French Football Federation (FFF) and the Professional Football League (LFP) — “to strictly apply the FIFA protocol as soon as there is homophobic chanting” and to stop any match if necessary. Two weeks later, it is clear that no match has been interrupted despite homophobic chants heard in several stadiums.
Already in 2019, former Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu tried to tackle homophobia outside French stadiums. His request to interrupt the matches was nevertheless met with a refusal from the former president of the FFF, Noël Le Graët.
So, are sports authorities stronger than their supervisory ministry? Does the minister have the levers to force the Professional Football League or the French Football Federation to stop meetings or is this just a PR stunt?
A Minister of Sports far from the sidelines
To find out, let's take a moment to look at the legal framework surrounding relations between sports federations and the State. In order to be able to organize official competitions and also obtain public subsidies for this purpose, the FFF, like any other sports federation, must be granted a approval from the Ministry of Sports. The latter is issued, among other things, on the condition that the federation adopts disciplinary regulations and subscribes to and republican engagement contract.
This contract engage the federation to ensure to the protection of the physical and moral integrity of people, particularly in cases of gender-based and sexual violence. The conformity of the disciplinary regulations, for its part, is controlled by the Minister of Sports.
The LFP, although it does not benefit from its own approval, in that it acts on delegation of the FFF to organize professional championships (Ligue 1, Ligue 2), depends indirectly on the Ministry of Sports via the FFF.
The Minister of Sports, because of this approval, thus has prerogatives allowing him to act indirectly on what happens in the stadiums. He can send the FFF a letter of injunction if it does not respect the regulations or the commitments linked to its approval.
This injunction can even be verbal, if it is sufficiently precise and unconditional. If the FFF refuses to comply, the minister can then refer the matter to the Council of State in order to guarantee compliance with the texts.
In the center, the French Minister of Sports, Youth and Community Life, Gil Averous. Photo Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP
Apart from this referral to the Council of State, the minister can also withdraw the approval given by the State to a sports federation, as indicated l’article R131-10 of the Sports Code, in the event of serious reasons such as a “breach of public order or morality” (article R131-9).
Gil Avérous does not, however, need to go so far to impose the stopping of matches in the event of homophobic chants, since the regulations of the FFF and the LFP already provide for a stopping of matches as a disciplinary sanction.
In any case, the police authority (the prefect) can always interrupt a match in the event of a disturbance to public order, in particular physical or verbal violence (homophobic chants in this case).
Rules that already allow defeat as a sanction
The articles of regulations of the Professional Football League plan to implement such a measure in the French Football Championship.
These articles allow the LFP Disciplinary Commission to declare a match “lost by penalty”, as a disciplinary sanction (article 549 of the regulations).
The disciplinary regulations of the FFF as well as the LFP explicitly define racist and discriminatory behavior as punishable. They also emphasize that a club is also responsible for the acts committed by its spectators and may be subject to disciplinary sanctions due to their actions.
In other words, the Ministry of Sports as well as the FFE and the LFP have a legal arsenal which allows matches to be stopped in the event of homophobic chants. So why is this regulation not enforced?
A never ending match
The answer may not lie from a legal point of view: “If we are pragmatic and systematically stop matches in the event of homophobic chants, there would be no more matches”recognizes Highlighters as an LFP executive who wishes to preserve his anonymity.
It must be said that, behind the minister's shock request, lies a puzzle… “Match stoppages, we pushed it in 2018, it ends in blood sausage, it worsens the reactions of supporters who act by group effect. If we stop a match, the supporters will stop all the matches on purpose”warns Yoann Lemaire, president of the Foot Ensemble association, which works with the LFP.
Illustration / A match interrupted due to clashes in the stands during the match OM-Galatasaray, in Marseille, in September 2021. Photo Nicolas Tucat / AFP
Paradoxically, interrupting a match in the name of public order could represent a serious risk… of disturbing public order. “We are sending tens of thousands of frustrated and disgruntled supporters into the streets. This would require support from law enforcement that cannot be provided every weekend.”estimates sports historian François Da Rocha Carneiro.
In addition to supporters, clubs may also be opposed to stopping matches, due to the significant financial consequences they entail: reimbursement of tickets, loss of income for broadcasters and disruption of sports calendars.
“The match is an economic object, from the moment you break a cycle of regularity, you touch on the management of the calendar, it is a headache of organization and postponement, and that has a real economic cost”agrees Patrick Mignon, former sociologist at the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance.
In other words, the power of supporters to cause harm can be such that sports authorities seem reluctant to propose radical measures, for fear of equally radical reprisals.
Prevention or interruption?
Thus, according to the specialists interviewed, stopping matches is not the solution: “It won’t solve anything, it’s just a media stunt”denounces the historian François Da Rocha Carneiro, “we must educate! Puffing out your chest and announcing the end of the matches is only adding virilism to virilism”.
An opinion shared by Yoann Lemaire, who instead advocates a dialogue with supporters: “We have to fight intelligently and do long-term work to raise awareness among supporters. You have to learn the fan culture and discuss it for a long time with them”he believes.
A solution which seems to be shared by the LFP which highlights its actions to combat homophobia: awareness workshops on the fight against discrimination, awareness raising among players, management and supporters or even the organization of days dedicated to the fight against discrimination.
Former Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappé wearing a rainbow-colored jersey on May 16, 2021 to raise awareness of the fight against homophobia. Photo: Franck Fife / AFP
Measures that some associations fighting against LGBT+phobia consider insufficient. The “Rouge Direct” collective and the Stop Homophobia association filed a complaint against the LFP and the Ligue 1 broadcaster, the DAZN channel, on October 28 for “homophobic insults and incitement to hatred”report our colleagues from Figaro.
A few days later, “Rouge Direct” attacked the LFP again in a press release: “The fight against homophobia does not exist in French football. The LFP, which nevertheless acts by delegation of public service, openly defies its supervisory authority, the Minister of Sports”.
From Roxana Maracineanu in 2019, to Gil Avérous today, homophobia in the French football world persists and only the names of the Ministers of Sports change. Undoubtedly proof of the embarrassment surrounding this subject, neither the Ministry of Sports nor the French Football Federation responded to our requests.
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