A group denounces the inaction of public authorities and sports bodies

“There is clearly a lack of will to act”. While the French football championship resumes its rights in Ligue 2 on Saturday, the Rouge Direct collective, which fights against homophobia in sport, protests the inaction of public authorities and football authorities in the face of demonstrations homophobes who, according to him, are multiplying.

“Last season was a black year in the fight against homophobia, worries Pontes, spokesperson for Rouge Direct. We made five reports without there having been the slightest reaction from the sporting authority: whether they were homophobic chants in the stadiums of Saint-Etienne, Marseille and Lyon or, at amateur level, facts concerning the FC Morteau and FC Melun. The law is not enforced on football pitches.

According to@_LICRA_these facts of#homophobia can be qualified as “incitement to hatred and a call to murder”. @JacquesCardoze are you going to file a complaint against these “troublemakers”?@DILCRAH@OM_Officiel@RoxaMaracineanu@TETUmag@bleuprovence@stop_homophobia pic.twitter.com/t5RFEbNI22
– Rouge Direct (@RougeDirect) October 26, 2021

Hence a renewed request to the Ministry of Sports “to send a circular to the prefects to remind them of the regulatory framework sanctioning any manifestation of homophobia during football matches and that they are required to report it to the prosecutor as soon as possible. that they are aware of it”.

Report closed without follow-up

This was also the case in April 2019, after the Lens-Valenciennes match. At the time, a leader – called kapo in the jargon of the supporters – had uttered homophobic insults chanted in chorus by some of the ultras: “Oh VA [Valenciennes], you bunch of fags! “. The sequence had been immortalized by a video posted online by Rouge Direct and earned RC Lens a fine of 50,000 euros and a suspended match behind closed doors, imposed by the Disciplinary Committee of the Football League.

The Pas-de-Calais prefecture then brought the case to justice. “These facts being likely to constitute an offence, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, following the basis of these elements, seized the public prosecutor of Béthune under article 40 of the code of criminal procedure”, warned, the prefecture , in a press release.

Three years later, Rouge Direct therefore decided to take an interest in the fate of this report. And there, surprise, the lawyer of Rouge Direct learned that no report had been sent to justice. Contacted in turn by 20 Minutesthe Pas-de-Calais prefecture has finally found the memory and trace of this report.

Death threats on social media

A waste of time since, despite the video recording, the Béthune prosecutor admits today that the “criminal procedure was the subject of a decision to close the case without further action”. “We note the lack of seriousness with which this affair seems to have been treated”, protests Julien Pontes who, at the time had tried to meet representatives of supporters with the help of the leaders of RC Lens.

“We wanted them to understand that homophobia has no place, neither in football nor elsewhere,” he says. In vain, the ultras had ended up declining the invitation at the last moment. “It’s very complicated to resolve this kind of incident through discussion. At each attempt, the supporters slam the door in our face,” he complains.

Especially since the Lensois episode had experienced a rather nauseating rebound. A complaint had to be filed by a Lensois supporter targeted, this time, by death threats on social networks, as reported by France 3. The young man, who was at the stadium that evening, had denounced these homophobic chants in a series of tweets. He was immediately accused, by some ultras, of being at the origin of the sanction imposed on the Lensois club.

“Three or four ongoing criminal cases”

“We are very worried to see that the stands remain a release point for homophobia without the football authorities being concerned about it”, continues Julien Pontes. Nevertheless, some of these cases are in the hands of justice. “We have three or four criminal cases in progress, concerning homophobic songs in a stadium”, underlines Me Etienne Deshoulières, lawyer specializing in the subject.

And in particular the episode which had shocked the former Minister of Sports, Roxanna Maracineanu, during a PSG-Marseille match, in March 2019. “This case is before the Council of State, explains Me Deshoulières. We have been dismissed so far because justice does not recognize the right of LGBT associations to order the football league to take up the problem. It will be necessary, however, to authorize these associations to add their two cents if we want to change the situation. »