Although his gesture was singled out by most observers, Mohamed Camara nevertheless received support. Last Sunday, the AS Monaco midfielder played the match against Nantes by hiding the logos of the fight against homophobia from his jersey. He was summoned on Thursday May 30 by the disciplinary committee of the Professional Football League while the Malian Football Federation defended him this Wednesday.
“The Malian Football Federation supports Mohamed Camara in the exercise of his freedom of expression and its corollary, (that) of not expressing oneself. Players are citizens like any other whose fundamental rights must be protected in all circumstances,” she wrote in a press release.
The Malian international, trained at AS Real in Bamako, left his country in 2018 to join Austria. In Mali, homosexuality is still very frowned upon, even if no criminal sanctions are in force.
Multiple calls for sanctions
On Monday, the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, called for sanctions against the midfielder, but also against his club, which let him go out with the logos of his jersey hidden. The Rouge Direct collective also spoke out on this subject and made the same speech.
Thiago Scuro, the general director of AS Monaco, reacted on Tuesday: “I was able to call Arnaud Rouger on Monday morning (the general director of the LFP) to present our apologies to the League. Now, this is an internal subject, we have to discuss with the player to find the best way to deal with this. »
In addition to Mohamed Camara, Nantes’ Mostafa Mohamed was also singled out for refusing to play. Lille midfielder Nabil Bentaleb, for his part, tied his shoelaces during the group photo in front of the banner against homophobia, but it is difficult to determine whether this gesture was voluntary.
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