Paris (AFP)

The brief interruption of the meeting of L2 between Nancy and Le Mans because of homophobic songs coming from the stands, Friday night, attests to the new severity of the instances of the football towards the remarks and discriminatory facts. Nancy and her supporters should be punished.

The Lorraine club signed on the field an anecdotal victory. His match won 2-1 on the Manceaux will remain first as the first meeting stopped because of homophobic songs in France.

A shameful first underlined by the sports minister Roxana Maracineanu who, after congratulating Mehdi Mokhtari, the decision-maker, wished that this premiere be also "a last".

Cancers of the stands, songs and behaviors insulting, detrimental to the dignity, were the workhorse of many (his) ministers, of Rama Yade to Laura Flessel. But it is under the mandate of Maracineanu that the League of professional football (LFP) and various associations like LICRA or SOS homophobia, have more concretely united around plans of struggle.

Since last spring, the possibility - inscribed in the UEFA regulation - of interrupting a match to call to order and silence silence to insulting supporters, has become an order of the minister. And a reality. On April 12, the meeting between Dijon and Amiens was stopped for a few minutes, at the initiative of Captain Picards, Prince-Desire Gouano, targets of racist insults. The referee intervened only in support.

Friday night, it was he who made the decision to say stop, in the 27th minute, while the Marcel-Picot stadium resonated with songs hostile to the messin neighbors using a clearly homophobic vocabulary. Changing target, the Ultrasound Nancy then attacked the League in the same tone.

- decision of the LFP Wednesday -

The interruption lasted only one minute but should not remain without consequences for the ASNL whose case will be studied by the Disciplinary Committee of the LFP on Wednesday.

For the incidents in April, Dijon had received a suspended penalty point and the supporter identified as having uttered racist abuse had been indicted, the club complained.

"There is a regulation, that the League has fixed, it must be applied and it will have to be applied," admitted Friday night, hot, the President Jean-Michel Roussier Lorraine. "We met the leaders of the fan groups at half-time with the delegates who heard the message, and I will see them again on this subject because it is a subject that will not be treated in three spoon shots. pot, it's a subject of substance. "

On Saturday morning, the entourage of Mr. Roussier indicated that the president had not made any decision as to possible judicial action against the supporters.

Public provocation to hatred or violence for reasons of origin or sexual orientation and incitement to hatred or violence at a sporting event may be punishable by up to one year in prison. stadium ban.

"Football is not intended to address the problems of society alone.What we are talking about there is the problems of society that go well beyond the framework of football," warned the boss of the club Lorraine.

"It is not us who will deal with, who will prevent, who will educate, who will make sure that this type of talk comes out of people's mouths, whether it is our supporters or anyone else. Then we condemn them, but by grace, it is not Nancy who is pointed out. "

© 2019 AFP