The case of ethnic registration of players at Paris Saint-Germain has been relaunched: a Parisian investigating judge has been investigating these facts for several months, which date from the 2010s, after receiving a complaint from the League for Human Rights. ‘Man (LDH).
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The information, learned on Wednesday from a source close to the case by AFP, was confirmed by the Paris prosecutor’s office, which indicated that it had opened a judicial investigation in May in this case, already the subject of a first investigation closed in August 2022.
“PSG did not commit any discrimination, as demonstrated by the prosecution. The latter has already indicated that it has made a classification without further action in this case,” reacted the club, defended by Me Antoine Maisonneuve.
At the end of 2018, a media collective, notably Mediapart and Special Envoy in France, revealed that the recruitment unit of the Parisian club had mentioned ethnic criteria between 2013 and 2018 in its evaluation sheets for young players, classified as “French” , “Maghrebi”, “West Indian”, “African”.
PSG initially defended itself by recognizing the existence of “forms with illegal content”, attributing it to a “personal initiative of the manager” of the “recruitment cell of the training center, dedicated to territories outside the Island -de-France”, managed at the time by Marc Westerloppe, who then left for Stade Rennais.
But quickly, the daily L’Equipe produced a document according to which ethnic criteria also appeared on the files of the Ile-de-France unit.
According to the complaint of which AFP was aware, the “recruiters filled in a box” in a file “according to the skin color of the individual, it indicated French for whites, African for blacks, West Indian for blacks overseas departments or even butter (sic) for North African people”.
“Acronyms were also used such as BK (Black), BC (White), BR (Butter), AS (Asian)”, again according to the document, and the whole was then sent to the recruitment unit of the resident club of the Parc des Princes.
The internal investigation launched by PSG concluded that there was no “proven case of discrimination”, despite the existence of ethnic registration. The club had announced “measures aimed at strengthening ethical practices” within it.
Fines
PSG was fined 100,000 euros in January 2019 by the disciplinary committee of the Professional Football League (LFP).
Several club officials were also given suspended fines.
In criminal matters, the LDH immediately filed a complaint against X for discrimination and collection and processing of personal data revealing racial or ethnic origins.
The criminal investigation was closed in August 2022 for “insufficiently characterized offense”, but the LDH filed a new complaint with the constitution of a civil party at the beginning of 2023, a procedure which generally makes it possible to obtain the appointment of an investigating judge .
“We are very satisfied that this procedure has been opened, despite the dismissal by a section of the Paris prosecutor’s office,” commented Mr. Arié Alimi, LDH lawyer contacted by AFP.
“The motivations call into question the positioning of this section, responsible in theory for combating discrimination and hate speech,” he added.
Accusations of racism regularly agitate the world of football.
In the “quota affair”, revealed in 2011 by Mediapart, French football leaders, including Laurent Blanc, were accused of wanting to limit the number of binational players in training centers, during a management meeting. national technique (DTN) at the end of 2010.
Prosecuted for discrimination and harassment, mainly against Muslim footballers, Christophe Galtier, the ex-coach of Nice, was acquitted in December 2023, following a trial which turned into a settling of personal scores.