Racist insults in a Plateau Neste Football – Plaisance-du-Touch match? “There was no racist insult and no monkey cry” affirms the public prosecutor of Tarbes

“P***, bougnouls, niggas”… The players of the Plaisance-du-Touch U18 team left Lannemezan on November 16 traumatized by the racist insults they allegedly suffered from spectators. “Monkey cries, whores, bougnouls, niggers, as soon as the girls touched the ball” lamented the president of the Plaisance club Eric Firmigier. Complaints against X were filed in the Toulouse region.

As for the Plateau Neste Football group, the leaders and members of the club are still traumatized by the dimension that the affair took. The Haut-Pyrénées club has been pilloried by social networks and national media in particular. “We decided not to communicate. Through these baseless declarations, our clubs have been tarnished. We don't really know what happened to reach such extremes” deplores Jean-Baptiste Bousquet for his part. , president of the Lannemezan club and co-manager of the Plateau Neste Football group reached by telephone.

“No insults, no monkey cries”

Rebound this Tuesday with the public prosecutor of Tarbes, Bérangère PrudHomme, who evokes “unfounded denunciations of racial insults”. She states in a press release that “the first investigations have established that there was no racial insult and no monkey cries during this match.”

The police questioned witnesses who attended the match. “Several witnesses, including a completely objective witness who is not linked to either team, described precisely the course of this match on November 16 at Lannemezan. They declared that no racial insults had been uttered during the match. this sporting event Only one insulting term was uttered as is the case in the vast majority of football matches of this type, which is particularly detestable and remains a lack of respect too often tolerated in these events. sporting events” deplores the magistrate who continues: “Subject to the investigations remaining to be carried out, a possible exaggeration of the insult by adding an unfounded racist connotation cannot be ruled out.”

“Shocking to have been accused”

According to this witness, “the Plaisance du Touch team had clearly come to Lannemezan with the sole aim of winning, that several faults were noted by the referee against them and that they were angry at not having been able to score no goal at the end of the match” specifies Bérangère Prud'Homme.

A position which relieves Jean-Baptiste Bousquet, co-president of FC Plateau de Lannemezan: “It is not in the DNA of our group because we work with the Foyer des immigrants de Lannemezan. It is shocking for us to have been accused in this way. The fact that Plaisance was able to publish this without foundation could have had very serious consequences for the safety of our players.

The Haut-Pyrénées club preferred to cancel a trip to Auch as a precautionary measure. “These are young people aged between 15 and 18 who we subsequently had to protect. For example, we canceled a trip to Auch so as not to expose them. We are now the victim of a national media frenzy while there is no basis” insists Jean-Baptiste Bousquet who does not exclude any further action: “We reserve the right to react accordingly as soon as a judicial decision has been pronounced because we have confidence in the justice will then be expected of us in the Football League.”

For Eric Sans Agut, co-manager of the Plateau Neste Football group, “I regretted this excitement over a communication on social networks. I had hoped that it would end this way because the comments noted, we do not hear them on our sidelines.”

“The subject deserves to be worked on”

Eric Sans Agut continues: “we are not immune of course and we cannot accept them just as we cannot accept the exaggerations of certain people. These are things that are beyond our control and which I regret. We have done very important internal communication work to preserve our young people Today, I warn all leaders who may be affected by this type of affair because it has very seriously affected us. The subject is very serious and deserves to be addressed. 'be worked.'

For its part, justice continues its work. “Given the consequences on the Lannemezan football team of these certainly premature communications, it seems important to reestablish the truth about the events which took place on November 16. If the conclusions of the investigation were to confirm this definitively, an exploitation relating to racial insults would justify a judicial response” further warns Bérangère Prud'Homme, public prosecutor of Tarbes. The matter is undoubtedly not over.