Paris (AFP)
The president of the French Football Federation Noël Le Graët said on Tuesday that he had asked the referees not to stop the matches for homophobic songs or banners in the stands.
"I hope" that this request will be taken into account from the next day of the championship, this weekend, answered the president of the FFF, interviewed by France Info. The FFF is responsible for the refereeing of the championship of France: indeed, the technical direction of the arbitration depends on it.
"Stopping the matches does not interest me, it's a mistake, I'll stop a match for racist cries, I'll stop a match for a fight, incidents if there is a danger in the stands" Le Graët continued, assuring that racism in stadiums and homophobia in the stands, "it's not the same thing" and calling the clubs to "act" through their security services.
"The club security service has to control the people who come back to the field, there are services that are there to ensure that these banners disappear quickly," he said. "But the stopping of the matches is something else, the game is something complicated and beautiful, we will make sure that there are no more banners, but stop the matches, no ".
Noël Le Graët had already positioned himself Friday in an interview with the newspaper Ouest-France on this issue, rising to the niche against the policies, starting with the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu, who had responded by estimating that he had tried to "discredit" his word.
Le Graët insisted on Tuesday: "Homophobia is a national problem, I do not accept that only football is concerned by homophobia because it is so false, it is a national problem", he hammered on France Info.
Since the beginning of the season, several meetings have been briefly interrupted in L1 and L2 to stop homophobic songs launched from the stands or the deployment of offensive banners. A firmness demanded and warmly welcomed by the Minister of Sports, her colleague in charge of the fight against discrimination, Marlene Schiappa, and associations fighting against homophobia.
© 2019 AFP