Time for discussions with supporters, awareness workshops, designation of referents within groups of supporters: the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and the French football authorities will put in place several actions to fight against homophobia in football clubs. stadiums, according to a letter sent to professional clubs and selections that AFP was able to consult on Saturday.
Three actions will be carried out “in the coming weeks”, specifies the letter dated October 12 and signed jointly by the Minister of Sports, by her colleague in charge of Equality between women and men and the Fight against discrimination Bérangère Couillard and by the presidents of the French Football Federation (FFF) Philippe Diallo and the Professional Football League (LFP) Vincent Labrune. They will be presented on December 18 during the plenary session of the national supporterism body.
Time for discussion, awareness and referents
The signatories announced “the organization of a time of discussion with groups of supporters (…) to share a diagnosis of facts relating to the field of homophobia on the occasion of past meetings, but also to share the need , when necessary, to change certain practices, starting with songs that are partly obviously homophobic and which are still taken up by historical habit.”
They also provide for “the implementation or strengthening of awareness-raising and training workshops in the fight against discrimination, for all stakeholders concerned, including club supporter representatives and supporter associations”.
It is also planned to designate, within the groups of supporters, reference people trained “in the prevention of discrimination, particularly homophobic, and ready to work on this theme in conjunction with local associations, in particular LGBT+ centers”.
Homophobic songs
In recent weeks, several Ligue 1 matches have been the scene of homophobic chants. The PSG-OM classic thus gave rise to a sanction from the LFP disciplinary committee which decided to close a stand at the Parc des Princes and a suspended match suspension for four Parisian players.
Stade Rennes, for its part, was fined 70,000 euros for homophobic chants sung during a match against Nantes on October 1.
The interministerial delegate for the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and anti-LGBT hatred (DILCRAH), Olivier Klein, announced Thursday that he had taken legal action three times “following the various homophobic chants in the stadiums”.