Augustin Senghor: "Noël Le Graët should really face racism head-on"

The president of the Senegalese Football Federation, Augustin Senghor.

RFI / David Kalfa

Text by: Christophe Jousset Follow

4 min

On September 15, the president of the French Football Federation Noël Le Graët caused controversy by asserting that racism "in sport and football in particular does not exist or hardly exists".

The president of the Senegalese Federation Augustin Senghor, who answered him in a forum, believes that the boss of the FFF "should review his copy" about a phenomenon vis-à-vis which "we never really have anything fact ".

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Augustin Senghor

I was shocked after hearing President Noël Le Graët make this statement.

I consider that racism is not about to leave our stadiums and above all is not about to leave our societies, if the decision-makers and other reference persons make this kind of talk.

In reality, it is a kind of negation of what is obvious, of what everyone sees every day in our stadiums.

And to say that it represents only 1% in sport in general and in football in particular, is to refuse or, in any case, to justify the unjustifiable.

Did President Noël Le Graët disappoint you on this occasion

Compared to the young leader that I am, he will keep this esteem.

I think it can happen that we do not measure the seriousness of what we can say on a television set.

But, on the other hand, it is the solution of a problem by denial if the president of a federation which welcomes many foreigners, personalities of other origins, Africans in particular, […] says that there is no racism.

It's worrying.

And I think he should review his copy and really face this problem head-on, which today is a task on the world of sport and football in particular.

[…] Supporters in the stadiums make derogatory remarks, they insult, throw bananas and peanuts.

They call black players "dirty blacks".

It is a form of racism that decision-makers deny the existence or towards which they do not take their responsibilities.

They are taking half measures in the face of this problem, while on others there have been decided positions to definitively resolve these problems.

Racism must be banned in our stadiums.

And in doing so, we might help our societies to sort it out on other scales.

Do you think that the fight against racism in sport in general and in football in particular is not progressing

It didn't budge, we never really did anything.

They are aware that it bothers and that it is not normal.

But, for me, we have always used expedients, evasions to get around the difficulty.

But it is there.

[…]

If football leaders are serious about finding the solution, they have to.

They have to put themselves in the shoes of all these young blacks who, throughout their careers, suffer insults and who are really affected.

When Mr. Le Graët says that all the supporters of a stadium are standing for every goal that a black player scores, that does not correspond to reality.

In fact, every time there is a goal, if there is one half of the stadium that rises to celebrate the goal and not to congratulate the African player who scored it, another starts, she, to insult him because a black makes him lose the match.

We, the young African leaders, must take our responsibilities to do the necessary lobbying so that international bodies, such as FIFA, European confederations and federations in particular, take drastic measures against racism in stadiums.

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