Will we still hear Daniel Bravo on BeIN Sports? The former midfielder turned consultant was suspended with “immediate effect” by his channel for making sexist comments on air on Saturday evening.
Commenting on Paris FC-OM, the only Ligue 1 match broadcast by BeIN Sports this weekend, Daniel Bravo targeted Gaëtane Thiney. The former French international (163 caps, 58 goals with Les Bleues) and former Paris FC player who became sports director of the women’s section appears on the screen. In the stands, she chats with her neighbor on the left, Valérie Gallot, the wife of Jean-Marc Gallot, new general director of the club. It is obviously impossible to know the content of the exchanges. The former attacker’s hand gestures suggest that she may be explaining a tactical detail to her interlocutor.
The former PSG player, aged 62, nevertheless makes his comment: “She’s not very attentive,” he says. His colleague Christophe Josse, who accompanies him on the air, visibly feels that his neighbor is very close to slipping and tries to correct him. “She’s like you Daniel, she gives technical explanations. » But the one who joined BeIN Sports in 2016 continues. “I have the impression that she was talking about lingerie,” said the former French international before adding the word “clothing”, despite the journalist’s “no, no, no”. What follows is a burst of laughter from the former player.
Quickly, the sequence captured in the 60th minute of the match was isolated by viewers who shared it on social networks. The first reactions are raining. By the end of the evening, several media outlets were reporting on it. A wave of indignation quickly took shape before being relaunched even more strongly in the early morning.
The channel does not take long to react. A press release published on the social network X mid-morning denounces the behavior of Daniel Bravo, without naming him. “We sincerely regret the comments made on air by one of our consultants, and we apologize to the person concerned, to our subscribers and to all those who these comments may have offended,” the channel began before referring to what Vanessa Le Moigne suffered a few days earlier, again, without naming her. Harassed and victim of sexism after the CAN final, the journalist decided to stop covering football on the Qatari channel.
At the same time, Florent Houzot, editorial director, announced the suspension with “immediate effect” of Daniel Bravo, ensuring that the latter had taken care to contact Gaëtane Thiney in order to apologize. Initially scheduled for comments on Athletic Bilbao – Real Sociedad on Sunday evening, the consultant was therefore not behind the microphone.
Contacted this Sunday morning, the consultant, who began his retraining in 2001 at TPS, has so far not responded to our requests. For the moment, the duration of his sidelining has not been specified and few precedents exist. In April 2019, comments made on air by Daniel Bravo had already led BeIN Sports to react. While praising Nuno Da Costa’s performances on the sidelines of a Ligue 1 match between Strasbourg and Reims, Daniel Bravo said “not bad for a black guy”, before correcting himself, “for a player who has only started 17 times”.
At the time, BeIN Sports presented a joint apology with the former player, in response to comments “which can be considered shocking and which go against the values advocated by the channel and its editorial staff. » “Forgiven” immediately by the player himself, Daniel Bravo was not worried.
At RMC Sport, a serious controversy arose in June 2019. During a live debate on the air on the Neymar affair, Daniel Riolo and Jérôme Rothen exchanged a slew of sexist remarks targeting the accuser of the Brazilian striker, judged on his physique. After issuing a public apology, they had to withdraw from the air for a week.
Daniel Bravo should be fixed soon. On social networks, dozens of Internet users were surprised and even outraged that a sanction could have been taken against the consultant. “There is still a long way to go,” said Sports Minister Marina Ferrari, echoing the wave of harassment suffered by Vanessa Le Moigne. Sexism is violence, and it must be fought with determination. »
