The Professional Football League (LFP) lodge in LGBT colors before a match between AS Monaco and Lille Olympique Sporting Club (LOSC), on May 14 in Monaco. CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP
The French collective fighting against homophobia in football Rouge direct announced Tuesday, November 14 to Agence France-Presse (AFP) “permanently cease its activities initiated in November 2016”denouncing the “resignation of the State”the Professional Football League (LFP) and the French Football Federation (FFF).
“The unacceptable gap between the words [de la ministre des sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra] on “zero tolerance” against homophobia and its anecdotal acts against this scourge that kills, will have just highlighted the resignation of the State in its obligations to protect the LGBT minority”estimates Rouge direct in a press release. “We will not insist on the total and culpable inaction of the FFF and the LFP. Their unforgivable responsibility in the trivialization of homophobia in football is now notorious”accuses the collective.
On October 14, reacting to homophobic chants during the meeting between Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique de Marseille, on September 24, and between Rennes and Nantes on October 1, the minister and these two authorities announced times of exchanges with supporters, awareness workshops − which the LFP has already been organizing for several years − or even the designation of referents within supporter groups.
Julien Pontes, spokesperson and co-founder of the Rouge direct collective, who participated in a meeting with the minister at the end of the summer, told Agence France-Presse “being shocked by the lack of support” after the death threats he and other activists received. “We are stopping our activities which only bring us danger”he regretted.
“Football should be a great celebration, I am from the Platini generation, my idol… The 1998 victory [de la France en Coupe du monde] was a hope for national unity which also speaks to a discriminated gay man, but this promise has not been kept”added Julien Pontes.
Also read the interview: Article reserved for our subscribers Homophobia: “Some of the French football authorities do not want to take the problem head on”
