a new plan to fight homophobia while the abandonment of rainbow flocking still divides

The Professional Football League unveiled its plan to combat homophobia on May 17, the international day against this discrimination. After the abandonment of rainbow flocking, certain associations decided not to join forces with this LFP action.

“Let’s get rid of homophobia!” This is the message that the Professional Football League (LFP) wants to print on all the pitches of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 for the final days of the championship. Friday May 17, the international day against homophobia, will mark the start of a broad campaign to combat this discrimination. The system, which certain associations fighting against homophobia will not join, was unveiled by the LFP. Among them, SOS Homophobia and the PanamPride Football Club denounce a significant decline in the fight. They denounce the abandonment of rainbow flocking, further proof of the difficulty of acting for the cause by satisfying all parties: LFP, clubs, players and associations.

A patch with the inscription “Homophobia” crossed out in red, the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 patch in the colors of the LGBT flag, just like the flags on the corner posts are notably part of the LFP system for this last week -end of the championship. It incorporates the codes of the operation carried out to combat racism, in addition to the workshops carried out throughout the year in clubs in partnership with associations such as Foot Ensemble and the Foundation for Inclusive Sport.

Not enough for certain associations which regret the reduced visibility of the colors of the LGBT cause: “This operation has the merit of existing, concedes Bertrand Lambert, president of PanamPride Football Club. But this is a fundamental step backwards which makes our colors invisible, the colors of our fight. This is something we cannot accept.” According to him, “this disappearance of rainbow flocking really proves right those who did not want to wear it”. This logo, which has the same colors as those for the day to combat racism, does not find an echo in the fight against homophobia for Bertrand Lambert: “They arrived at this black circle which can have meaning for racism. But for me, who is concerned with the fight against homophobia, it is not possible to arrive with a black badge. It has nothing to do with the LGBT cause.”he insists.

We deplore the end of jerseys 🏳️‍🌈 in Ligue 1&2

With @SOShomophobia we have decided to dissociate ourselves from this campaign led by the LFP noting the invisibility of the symbol of our fight against homophobia

👉 https://t.co/BMhopfRg5K#homophobia #LGBT #League 1 pic.twitter.com/Mqq8zgKDVh

— PanamPride Football Club (@PanamPrideFC) March 28, 2024

The colors of the LGBT flag will however be present on the jerseys, but only on the logo patches of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Not enough for the president of PanamPride Football Club: “This little logo, it will be visible to the players, it will not be visible to anyone else.”, he laments. He still fears that the mere presence of these colors on the jerseys will still push some players not to wear them: “We have to be very attentive to what is going to happen this weekend because, basically, we are doing this to please the players. But the jersey was presented to them and some would have said: ‘There’s still the symbol, that’s a problem for me’.”

“Can we imagine an association fighting against racism criticizing another at a time when we are carrying out a campaign to fight against racism?”

the LFP

at Franceinfo: sport

On the LFP side, we regret the separation of these two associations: “This general public communication system is truly unique and has never been so important during our championship days. This day really fits into everything we do throughout the season, with the anti-discrimination workshops that we carry out in the clubs. We find it difficult to understand that the League is a punching bag, when we are an ally. It is the sporting body that does the most.“

Yoann Lemaire is president of the Foot Ensemble association. After having campaigned for rainbow flocking three years ago, he is one of those who agreed to abandon it for this new device after having encountered, on the ground, “argued” opposition in a context where some argued that this jersey was intended to promote homosexuality: “I wrote a letter after many interventions with training centers, also in the professional world. I had underestimated the problem. The jersey posed a lot of problems. Sometimes it was very well argued. Sometimes, not at all. Sometimes it was homophobic. It became painful because we could no longer talk about homophobia: how to get involved against homophobia, what is homosexuality, what is homophobia, what is homophobic behavior? We were no longer able to exchange constructively“, he justifies.

Yoann Lemaire also points out another problem: the media coverage of this operation only focused, each time, on the few players who refused to wear this jersey, and not on the several hundred others who accepted the flocking: “Yes, there are five who didn’t wear it, but there are 800 or 900 who did. When I go to a middle or high school, the children tell me ‘In football, you are all homophobic.’ Because the kids saw on TV that only four or five players didn’t want to wear the jersey.“He assumes he prefers a solution that”get around the problem“, in order to “to bring these people to the fight against homophobia rather than the opposite” : “I’m not saying they won, it’s just a side step to take them another way.“

For Bertrand Lambert, this media coverage, even negative, “it was a great thermometer” : “I regret that the media only picked out the five who didn’t wear it each time. This was not my wish at all. Despite everything, it made it possible to put this subject in the headlines. Everyone had to take a stand on these issues of homophobia. All the people who had been burying their heads in the sand for years saying that it didn’t exist could no longer hold that position. We could clearly see that there was homophobia in football.”

Since the end of 2021, the LFP, in partnership with the various associations, has conducted 89 awareness workshops with 32 professional clubs. It is on this ground that the fight must be concentrated for Yoann Lemaire: “The main thing is to go to the clubs the rest of the year. This is long-term work. The work of raising awareness, of education, that’s the most important thing.”