The interministerial delegate for the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and anti-LGBT hatred (DILCRAH) Olivier Klein said on Monday he was “shocked” by the homophobic chants sung Sunday evening during the OM-PSG match and hoped that sanctions are taken.
“Very shocked by the unbearable homophobic chants heard at the Parc des Princes during #PSGOM”he wrote on his “X” account (formerly Twitter) the day after the meeting between PSG and OM at the Parc des Princes. “With the DILCRAH, I will contact the PSG club and the professional football league so that sanctions can be taken. We will also study the possibilities of taking legal action”adds Olivier Klein, former Minister Delegate for the City and Housing, who took the helm in September of Dilcrah, an organization attached to Matignon.
His message is accompanied by a thirty-second video in which we can hear PSG supporters singing homophobic chants against the players of the Marseille team. According to an AFP journalist present at the stadium to follow the match, these chants lasted almost a quarter of an hour.
Should we be worried about OM? “It looked like he was relegated”
The Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, also took up the subject, via social networks, this Monday. “It is unthinkable to remain deaf to such hateful and homophobic chants in our stands”she indicated. “I ensured yesterday evening that a firm response was provided. The LFP disciplinary committee is now seized. I invite PSG to file a complaint to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice, so that they left the stadiums”also declared Oudéa-Castera, for whom “yesterday (Sunday), these chants spoiled the party at the Park. It is urgent to eradicate them from our stadiums”.
The capital club also did not take long to react, in a press release this Monday, to remind us that it “condemns all forms of discrimination and wishes to point out that they have their place neither in stadiums nor in society”. The fact remains that several Parisian players could be subject to sanctions, for having also sung insulting songs towards the Marseillais.
Kolo Muani, Dembélé or… Kurzawa in the viewfinder
While they celebrated with their supporters Randal Kolo Muani, Achraf Hakimi, Ousmane Dembélé and Layvin Kurzawa, were filmed singing songs “Marseillais, fuck your s**t”. According to Le Parisien, the League should view the images before meeting in the disciplinary committee on Wednesday, and possibly impose sanctions on the players in question. This could cost the French and Moroccan internationals a match of absence.
According to an Ipsos survey published at the beginning of September and conducted with the LGBT+ Sports Federation, 46% of French people say they have already witnessed homophobic or transphobic behavior in the sporting environment. Still according to this study, less than one in two French people feel that “things are being done to combat LGBTphobia in sport” and more than three quarters (78%) want us to “go further” about this question.