The video showed a preacher calling for “a dark day for the Jews.” The ethics council of the French Football Federation (FFF) was contacted after OGC Nice player Youcef Atal shared a publication containing “calls for violence”, in connection with the Hamas war -Israel, President Philippe Diallo announced on Sunday.
Voices had been raised since Saturday, including those of the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi (Horizons) and the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif), to denounce the sharing, in an Instagram story, of a video containing remarks anti-Semitic. The Algeria international has since apologized.
“I support all the victims”
In a press release, the president of the FFF, Philippe Diallo, for his part denounced “the calls for violence relayed by the player” aged 27. “They are contrary to the ethics of our sport and the values that football tirelessly defends,” he said. The FFF condemns them with the most extreme firmness. Hate speech cannot be allowed. »
“I am aware that my publication shocked several people, which was not my intention and I apologize,” the player reacted on Sunday on the social network. He also specified that he wanted to “clarify [son] unambiguous point of view: I firmly condemn all forms of violence, wherever in the world, and I support all victims.” “I will never support a message of hatred. Peace is an ideal in which I firmly believe,” he concluded.
Remarks “constituting incitement to hatred”
As early as Saturday, in a message published on “If this were not the case, he would no longer have his place in our club,” continued the mayor of Nice.
“If the content” of the comments relayed is “confirmed”, they “constitute incitement to hatred”, for its part underlined Crif Sud-Est. Specifying that he had contacted his lawyer “so that a complaint could be filed”, he said he had “requested a ‘sworn translation’ of these remarks”. Contacted by AFP on Sunday, the Nice prosecutor’s office indicated that it had not yet been seized at this stage.