For three seasons, all Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 players have worn a rainbow-printed jersey on a designated day. In 2022 and then in 2023, controversies arose after the refusal of several players.
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The president of the Professional Football League (LFP) Vincent Labrune and its general director, Arnaud Rouger, indicated on Wednesday November 22 that they were considering updating the operation to combat homophobia, even if it meant swapping the arc jersey -rainbow for a device “clearer”. “We ask ourselves the question of how we will continue, the associations tell us that defending the cause is noble, but not by creating a negative buzz”reported Arnaud Rouger before the commission of inquiry of the National Assembly investigating the dysfunctions of French sports federations.
On May 14, at least five players from the French championship refused to wear this jersey during the “Homo or straight, we all wear the same jersey” campaign. A year earlier, Idrissa Gueye had also preferred not to play rather than participate in the operation. For some, he explained, the message conveyed by this jersey “lack of clarity” And “there is a fine line between fighting homophobia and promoting homosexuality”. Arnaud Rouger defended the work of the LFP which he judges “pioneer in awareness raising with 48 workshops in 20 different clubs”. For the general manager, it is necessary “that they (homophobes) understand that they are missing the point, and missing the society in which they operate”.
Faced with the proliferation of homophobic chants in stadiums, Vincent Labrune for his part pleaded for a systematic interruption of a match “at the first chant” of this type. “We are ready to go as far as possible, questions of discrimination in general annoy me, questions of homophobia drive me crazy”insisted the latter, saying he did not “didn’t understand why” the referee did not interrupt the PSG-OM Classic at the end of September while homophobic insults emanated from the stands. The president of the League is not, however, in favor of the definitive interruption “because if we interrupt each match definitively there will be no more matches, (the homophobes) must not win.”
