The “Rouge direct” collective called out the government on Sunday after Saint-Etienne supporters launched homophobic chants the day before. If the Minister of Sports asked for matches to be stopped in the event of a problem, Bruno Retailleau felt that this was “not the right solution”.
There are declarations and then there is practice. Othman Nasrou, Secretary of State to the Minister of the Interior, asked the Professional Football League on Sunday, November 3 in the evening to explain “why the Saint-Etienne-Strasbourg match was not interrupted” the day before. In a message posted on the social network X, the Secretary of State recalled that with Bruno Retailleau and the Minister of Sports, Gil Avérous, they had “said to the football authorities [leur] determination to stop homophobic chants».
It was the “Rouge direct” collective which, on Sunday, challenged the government in a message broadcast on X accompanied by a video of the songs. These were addressed to the Lyonnais, historic rivals of the Stéphanois, while the two teams are due to meet next Sunday in Lyon. “We ask the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, and the Minister of Sports, Gil Avérous, as well as the Professional Football League to finally act. New complaints will be filed against the LFP and DAZN from Monday”wrote the collective.
On October 24, Bruno Retailleau brought together the leaders of French professional football at the Ministry of the Interior, in the presence of Gil Avérous and Othman Nasrou. At the end of this meeting, the Minister of Sports asked the football authorities to strictly apply the FIFA protocol, which provides for a gradation ranging from the suspension of the match to the match being declared lost by the team which receives in the event of problems (homophobia, racism, violence, etc.). However, it is difficult to enforce the injunction when the Minister of the Interior himself had judged that“stop matches” was “very complicated” and was not “not the right solution” – comments made on the evening of October 24 on RMC.
The government against collective sanctions
In fact, since this date, no Ligue 1 or Ligue 2 match has been interrupted even temporarily while homophobic chants are regularly heard in the stadiums. In 2019, several professional matches were interrupted until the president of the French Football Federation at the time, Noël Le Graët, asked the referees to no longer stop the game, believing that “the methods [pour] punish constantly emphasize [les comportements problématiques]».
Declaring itself against collective sanctions, the government also announced on October 24 its desire “to individualize the sanctions” and“activate nominative ticketing”. “Each spectator must have a place with their name so that we can identify where the songs and comments are coming from and to identify those who are subject to stadium bans.», Gil Avérous then detailed. The measure should be effective by December 31 for PSG, OM and OL, then gradually come into force in the rest of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 stadiums over the next year.
