A friendly match between the under-13 teams from Laxou and Dombasle, in Lorraine, resulted, last Wednesday, February 14, in the exit of a player, a 12-year-old child, then forcibly undressed in public by the president of the first club appointed. The manager of Laxou forced him to remove his football uniform, jersey, shorts and socks, leaving him in front of the locker room in his underwear in the cold, under fourteen degrees.
His mother filed a complaint. “My son was forcibly undressed by the president of the club,” she accuses in The Republican East. I found him crying and shaking. He is still in shock. » In the same newspaper, the victim explained in particular that the president had called him a “shit kid.” » According to the mother, it was following a bad gesture by her son on the field that the child was then taken out of the field, pressed against a fence by the president, who demanded that the child return your sports equipment before leaving the premises.
Summoned for a hearing on August 29
The manager therefore took his jersey, shorts and socks, leaving him in the cold. Immediately called to the scene by another mother seeing the child crying, police officers heard the coach of Laxou’s team explain to them that “the president had undressed the little one, or even more.” The president, Bernard Bietzer, 66, was immediately taken into custody for 48 hours. The child’s mother immediately filed a complaint. Released after his police custody, the leader is summoned for a hearing on August 29, but only for having tackled and held his little player against a fence.
In the meantime, the Laxou football club had decided to remove him from his position as president. “He is known for his sanguine temperament but there, undressed or not, he did not have to act like this,” explains another manager.
Contacted, Bernard Bietzer agreed to deliver his version of the affair. “I look like the last of the last in this story,” he explains. Everything started suddenly from behind our player. Sent off, he didn’t want to leave the field, so, to avoid a general fight, I took him out myself. » As for the rest, concerning the undressing, he poses his version.
“The kid was going to leave the stadium but, indeed, I was angry and I told him “before you leave, you return your outfit”. Because we need them for the club and they must stay in the locker room. What I didn’t know was that he came to the stadium directly in club kit. And he didn’t have any spare clothes. »
“Mr. Bietzer could not have behaved the way he did”
The president is categorical: he did not undress the child himself. “He took off his clothes himself and handed them to me. There are many witnesses who attested to this and that is why the police did not accept this version. And I learned, via the police, that the coach who had accused me was very friendly with another educator at the club with whom I was in conflict. » But undressing by the hand of the president or not, forcing, even verbally, a twelve-year-old child to take off his outfit in the cold and in public seems to be a form of humiliation.
Blandine Ozdemir, the vice-president of the club, who was part of the Laxou steering committee which decided the immediate ousting of Bernard Bietzer from the presidency, was present. “I can only repeat what I told the investigators. I saw the little one take off his shirt and socks himself. Then I turned my head and didn’t see for the shorts. But anyway, Mr. Bietzer could not behave the way he did. »
At the club’s request, the team coach and the child’s mother have decided to no longer comment on this matter. Bernard Bietzer will not fight to stay at the club. “When I left police custody, I learned that I was no longer president,” he admits. But anyway, while I was with the police, I decided to resign no matter what. »
