Paris (AFP)

On the one hand a government that pushes to act more firmly against homophobic insults in the stands, on the other ultra angry: insults in the stadiums may become a headache for the French football authorities.

A Ligue 2 match, Nancy-Le Mans, stopped a few minutes by the referee on August 16, speakers who warn the stands in Ligue 1: the fight to chase homophobic expressions of the stands has clearly strengthened since the beginning of the season.

Wednesday, the Disciplinary Committee of the Football League (LFP) looks at 18 incidents related to offensive and / or homophobic songs, especially during Nancy-Le Mans. The list does not include those of the last weekend, as Monaco-Nîmes.

Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu praised the uprightness of the referees, who made the theme a hobby horse after attending a particularly blooming PSG-OM in the stands on 17 March.

At the time, the game did not seem to be won, between a president of the LFP, Nathalie Boy de la Tour, who promised to act but who put forward "the folklore" of supporters, and a patron of the federation, Christmas Le Graët, who condemned homophobia but bombarded the minister in Le Figaro: "she's not used to come to the stadium, it's true that in the pools we do not hear what he says to himself" .

Six months later, "all the stars are aligned, we never went so far in the pro football," welcomes the president of a club fighting against homophobia, PanamBoyz & Girlz United, Bertrand Lambert, who welcomes the work of the LFP.

- Outbidding -

But this firmness provokes a redoubled anger of the ultras, tired of being considered "handsome handsome and incapable of thinking", while they denounce recurrently the multiplication of prohibitions to move for security reasons, as recalled by AFP James Rophe, spokesman of the National Association of supporters (ANS).

For the sociologist Nicolas Hourcade, specialist of the subject and member of the National Instance of Supportism (INS), which puts all the actors around the table, there is a serious problem of method.

"Overnight, we impose interruptions and we threaten to stop the matches, without a clear definition of what is prohibited, and without prior dialogue with clubs and associations of supporters," said the teacher at the Central School of Lyon, "while recourse to insult is legitimate for ultra supporters".

"If we took the trouble to explain that even without homophobic intent, some historical songs can hurt or help to reinforce the discrimination that young gay people suffer, this would be understood and it would allow everyone to come out at the top," adds Pierre Barthélemy, a lawyer who deals with many files of supporters.

"From their point of view, we do not try to fight against homophobia, we try to remove them and to silence them," summarizes Hourcade Nicolas, which is, at once, a recrudescence of "The League is encuming you "in the stadiums. And expects an overbid of provocative streamers.

Some have already appeared in spans this weekend, sometimes polite ("Roxana swim against the tide"), sometimes more radical ("Roxana, LFP: shit bag is an insult?").

Directly targeted, the minister wants to stay firm. "For me, the freedom that matters about the fans is rather the freedom to move, to support their team," she pleaded Monday, promising "to start the project as soon as possible" with his colleague from the interior, Christophe Castaner. "The other freedom that matters to me is that of" homosexuals, "who should not have to assume in front of their family or loved ones the fact that this sexual orientation makes the subject of insults when they are on the street , in front of their TV, in a football stadium, "she added.

According to her, "the French language is quite insulting (...) if however we think it is essential to abuse the opposing team to support his own team".

© 2019 AFP