Head of French football laments that ‘too many’ matches stopped over homophobic chants
5241 Min Read
Noël Le Graët, president of the French Football Federation (FFF), complained that that “too many matches” have been stopped due to homophobic chants and banners, despite public outcry over a series of anti-gay incidents since the start of the 2019-2020 season.
Le Graët said that the FFF would not instruct referees to stop matches except in cases when a “whole stadium” was guilty of homophobic chanting.
“I think we’re stopping too many matches! That makes certain government ministers happy, but it bothers me. Football can’t be taken hostage by vulgarity,” said Le Graët in an interview with regional newspaper Ouest-France.
“Matches have been stopped when they shouldn’t have been,” Le Graët continued. “We will stop them if there is consistent homophobic abuse from the whole ground, but if among 30,000 people there are 2,000 imbeciles, I don’t see why the other 28,000 should be punished.”
Since the start of the French football season less than a month ago on August 9, there have been at least 20 cases of fans chanting homophobic slurs or showing anti-gay banners during domestic games. By contrast, there were 111 incidents of homophobic abuse in England over the course of the entire 2017-2018 season, according to Kick It Out, a British pressure group for equality in the sport.
