• The Blues created controversy on Tuesday, June 15, by announcing their intention to kneel down in protest against discrimination and racism before the match against Germany, before changing their mind.

  • Many political voices were raised to remind that, according to the Olympic Charter and the statutes of the FFF, players should not express political comments.

  • UEFA, which organizes the Euro, however recalled that any player wishing to put a knee on the ground was authorized to do so.

Was this gesture, ultimately aborted, really prohibited, as politicians and a police union claim? The French football team sparked a major controversy on Tuesday, June 15, by announcing its intention to kneel down in protest against discrimination and racism before the Euro match against Germany (1-0). A gesture symbolically associated with the anti-racist movement "Black Lives Matter", to which the Blues had however already resorted in the past and that the Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, supported.

In an open letter addressed to the president of the French Football Federation (FFF), Noël Le Graët, the angry France police-Policiers union announced its intention to take legal action to demand the appointment of a new provisional administrator of the FFF if the France team carried out its action. According to the minority union, of which General Secretary Michel Thooris is a former adviser to Marine Le Pen, this "eminently political propaganda gesture" would advocate "anti-cop hatred" and would be contrary to article 1 of the statutes of the FFF.

This vision is shared by many political figures on the right and on the far right, like Thierry Mariani, candidate for the national rally in the Paca region, who expressed his dissatisfaction with Europe 1. According to him, “the article 5 of the Olympic Charter recalls the neutrality of sport ”, and would therefore prevent the Blues from kneeling on the ground.

📺 “I regret the action of the knee to the ground of the @ equipedefrance.

It is an operation imported from a foreign country which has nothing to do with France.

I am attached to the neutrality of sport!

»@ Europe1 pic.twitter.com/Ay4hUwZGQ1

- Thierry MARIANI (@ThierryMARIANI) June 15, 2021

FAKE OFF

Article 1 of the statutes of the FFF, cited by the France Police union, provides that "any speech or display of a political, ideological, religious or trade union nature" is prohibited, as well as "any act of proselytism or propaganda maneuver. ”, Under penalty of“ disciplinary and / or criminal proceedings ”.

Article 50 of the Olympic Charter (and not 5), for its part, recalls "that no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is authorized in a place, site or other Olympic site".

Except that the Euro football is governed neither by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), nor by the FFF, but by UEFA (Union of European Football Associations).

And the latter, far from condemning the fact of putting one knee on the ground, would encourage it on the contrary.

A gesture encouraged by UEFA

Contacted by our colleagues from France Info, UEFA explained that it applied "zero tolerance against racism, therefore, any player who wants to demand equality between humans by putting one knee to the ground is authorized to do so. make ".

She even urges spectators to "show respect to the players and teams who make this gesture."

If in these statutes, UEFA declares itself politically and religiously neutral, it has already deployed “No to racism” banners on several occasions in the stadiums, recalls France Info, and claims its actions to fight against discrimination.

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