Last Saturday, the last round of the French Football League turned from solidarity with homosexuals to embarrassing the French football by rejecting some players to wear the campaign slogan, while the Egyptian Mustafa Mohamed boycotted his team Nante, and homosexuals were insulted in the stadium tunnel.
Serbian Nimania Mattic, Olympic midfielder Lyon and Egyptian Ahmed Hassan (Coca), have concealed the French league’s slogan against homosexuality during last Saturday matches.
Refuse and insult to the gay
Nante striker Mustafa Mohamed refused to play his team’s match against Montpellier, due to personal convictions, which is the third time that the Egyptian international has been absent from this initiative.
Meanwhile, Lance Gonan Jaradi defender was heard as he directed hostile insults in the stadium tunnel between the two halves of his team’s match against Monaco.
The series of incidents prompted the new French Sports Minister Mary Parsak to issue a statement on Sunday, calling for decisive measures.
“Football has a huge platform, and the (French Football) federation is determined to put this issue on the agenda of clubs and fans,” Parsak said.
“The anti -gay insults and behaviors are no longer acceptable. Society has evolved and the language of football must change with it. There is a wide range of sanctions available, and they must be applied,” she added.
The French League was planned to wear the players slogans in rainbow colors on shirts or driving badges on the arm and displaying messages in the stadiums as part of its annual awareness campaign.
However, the participation was varying in recent years, as some players have announced personal or religious reasons for their withdrawal from participating in the campaign.
The players rarely speak frankly, although former French international Antoine Griezmann said 6 years ago, “If a gay player wants to announce his sexual identity, all French players may not be with him, but I will be with him.”
Jonatan Klaus, the back of Nice, said last week that he was pessimistic about fighting homosexuality.
“I think it is an endless battle, because there will never be complete compatibility (with anti -homosexuality). Just a discussion is a problem,” he said.