Paris (AFP)

Canal + star commentator Stéphane Guy, fired for expressing his support for comedian Sébastien Thoen, was finally fired, the encrypted channel said Thursday, confirming press reports.

"Yes, we confirm. We are not making any further comments," said a spokesperson for the channel.

"It's a day of deep sadness," reacted the journalist, contacted by AFP.

Joined Canal + in 1997, he was notably known to comment on the matches of the French football championship.

This announcement sparked many reactions on social media.

"We have never been friends. Nor even close. These words of support for Stéphane are therefore free, sincere, frightened. And frankly, dismayed", reacted Nathalie Iannetta, sports consultant for TF1.

Montpellier HSC player Andy Delort gave his "support to Stéphane Guy", while wondering if he was risking "something" by doing so.

At the origin of his dismissal: the support given by Stéphane Guy to the humorist Sébastien Thoen, columnist of the "Canal Football Club", recently dismissed by Canal +.

Before a match he was commenting on two weeks ago, he paid tribute to his "friend", believing that he had "not had the exit he would have deserved".

Sébastien Thoen, who in addition to his role as a columnist also hosted the "Journal du hard", was dismissed at the end of November from the channel after having participated in a sketch which parodied the program of Pascal Praud on CNews "L'heure des pros".

The parody was broadcast on the sports betting site Winamax and was a big hit on social media.

The host was for this sketch alongside his former comrades of "Discrete Action" (his former show on Canal +), Julien Cazarre and Thomas Séraphine.

The sketch took up the visual identity of the CNews show and in particular mocked its presenter Pascal Praud, renamed "Pascal Prono", by mixing football considerations and subjects regularly discussed on CNews, such as immigration and jihadism.

The dismissal of Sébastien Thoen had aroused the indignation of many internal journalists.

Nearly 150 Canal + employees denounced this "eviction" and invoked "freedom of expression, caricature and parody".

The director of the antennas and programs of Canal +, Gérald-Brice Viret, for his part justified this dismissal, because the columnist was displayed in this sketch with a person who "constantly denigrates" the teams of the channel and had "legitimized "his words, an allusion to the comedian Julien Cazarre.

The Canal + and CNews channels both belong to the Canal + group, whose parent company Vivendi is controlled by Vincent Bolloré.

© 2020 AFP