(Paris) Supporters had sung homophobic chants against OM, and players had taken up insulting refrains: Paris SG and four players, including Randal Kolo Muani and Ousmane Dembélé, were summoned Thursday before the LFP disciplinary committee for a possible sanction.
The day after the disaster at Newcastle (4-1) during the 2nd day of the Champions League, players and representatives of the Parisian club are expected around 6 p.m. at the headquarters of the Professional Football League in Paris.
At the end of the afternoon, Michel Besnard, the security director of PSG, arrived at the LFP without making any comments, shortly before several members of the disciplinary committee, noted an AFP journalist.
On September 24 during the classic against Olympique de Marseille at the Parc des Princes, won easily (4-0), thousands of supporters – mainly the Ultras from the Auteuil stand – resumed homophobic chants for around ten minutes.
Contacted by AFP, neither PSG nor the Collectif Ultras Paris (CUP), which occupies the Auteuil stand, wished to respond.
At the final whistle of the match, the Parisian players gathered in front of the same Auteuil stand to celebrate the victory. During these celebrations, four of them, Ousmane Dembélé, Randal Kolo Muani, Achraf Hakimi and Layvin Kurzawa, were seen chanting insults against their opponents of the day.
These players apologized on Sunday on social networks saying they “sincerely regret” their words, particularly with regard to their “duty to set an example”.
Sunday evening, during the women’s D1 clash between Paris SG and Olympique Lyonnais at the Parc des Princes, the Parisian ultras displayed a banner for several minutes in the Auteuil stand “Paris against discrimination and recovery”.
At the same time, but in Rennes, other homophobic chants were heard at Roazhon Park during the Rennes-Nantes match.
This case is also examined Thursday by the League’s disciplinary commission, without an immediate sanction being taken.
PSG could be sanctioned as early as Thursday with the closure of the stands at the Park, with or without suspension.
Its four players, who could be heard by the committee by videoconference, could receive a one-match suspension, either firm or suspended.
On August 16, 2019, a Ligue 2 match between Nancy and Le Mans became the first professional football match to be interrupted by a referee in France for homophobic chants. A stand at the Nancy stadium was closed for one match.
On August 28 of the same year, Nice-Marseille, in L1, was also interrupted a few minutes after the deployment of homophobic banners. Part of a stand had been closed in Nice.
“We must condemn this type of comments. I invite supporters to show more imagination. When I was young, I was also in these stands, I already heard the same chants,” Philippe Diallo, the president of the French Football Federation, told AFP.
“I invite them to renew their repertoire because this type of talk is no longer in keeping with the society in which we live,” he added.
A sign that homophobia is still a widespread evil in French football, some 202 sanctions were taken last season by the LFP disciplinary committee for acts of discrimination, the vast majority of a homophobic nature, during 175 matches: 106 calls to order, 61 suspended fines, 34 firm fines and one grandstand closure (banners during Montpellier-Nantes).
The LFP has implemented several actions to combat homophobia in football.
Every year, a rainbow flocked jersey is worn by all the players during a championship day. Last year, some players refused to wear this jersey and therefore did not play for their club, attracting criticism from associations fighting against homophobia.
