The now ex-USO coach is also the subject of a preliminary investigation by the Orléans public prosecutor’s office for incitement to hatred and public insults of a racist nature.
Published
Reading time :
1 minute
:quality(50)/2023/11/06/000-ne3hx-6548bf50831f9953462128.jpg)
US Orléans coach Bernard Casoni, accused of racist remarks, has been fired, the National football club (3rd division) announced on Monday, November 6. “US Orléans informs of the early termination of the employment contract of Mr. Bernard Casoni”wrote the club in a laconic press release published on its official website.
Targeted by a preliminary investigation for provoking hatred or racial discrimination and for public insults of a racist nature opened by the Orléans public prosecutor’s office, the technician was suspended by his club on October 10. The former international (30 caps) presented his apologies two days later on France Bleu Orléans, arguing that he was “anything but racist” but admitting to having held a “unsuitable sentence”.
Local radio revealed the coach’s comments, made at a press conference. The former coach explained that his players were not “no more stupid than North Africans”. Former player of Olympique de Marseille, Bernard Casoni, aged 62, coached several seasons in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as well as in France in Bastia, Auxerre and Lorient in particular.
“Humanly, for me, it’s something difficult, because I think (…) that he experiences it very, very badly, because, fundamentally, he is someone (…) who “That’s not at all what we felt through the clumsiness of his words. Humanly, it’s regrettable”explained the president of the Orléans club Philippe Boutron during the induction of his successor Karim Mokeddem (49), former coach of Bourg-en-Bresse and Saint-Brieux.