It’s a reference game. Not sportingly, but in terms of the fight against racism. Tuesday evening, Paris-Saint-Germain received the Istanbul club Basaksehir at the Parc des Princes, as part of a Champions League match. In the 14th minute, when the score is 0-0, the game stops momentarily. The field referee comes to inquire about the ongoing tensions between the fourth referee – whose role is to assist his colleagues from the sidelines – and the staff of the Turkish club. A scene far from unprecedented in the world of football, accustomed to arbitration disputes. But two people are protesting in a particularly vehement way: Pierre Webo, Cameroonian assistant coach of Basaksehir, as well as Demba Ba, substitute striker. The first named claims to have been targeted by racist remarks from the fourth referee, Sebastian Coltescu, of Romanian nationality. “The black one over there. It’s not possible. Go and check who it is. That one, the black one”. Words subsequently confirmed by video images. The players of both teams are indignant, Demba Ba in the lead, followed by the stars Mbappe and Neymar in particular. The match will not resume in the evening. A first.
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Unfortunately, racist acts or remarks on the pitch are not uncommon. The network FARE (Football against racism in Europe) held until February 2020 (before the cessation of competitions due to the Covid), a list of discriminations taking place in the continent’s football venues. Between the hate songs, the cries of monkeys, the references to Nazism, the association counted approximately about twenty gestures of this type each month. The tip of the iceberg.
But so far, racism had never contributed to the suspension of a meeting (since postponed to this Wednesday evening, 7 p.m.). In February, the Franco-Malian Porto striker, Moussa Marega, victim of racist songs, decided to leave the field on his own. His teammates had dissuaded him, without success. Can the event of the PSG – Basaksehir match change the way players react to racism on the pitch?
“Awareness”
The Minister Delegate for Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, welcomed on Twitter a “historic decision”, relying on the “strong symbolism” of this departure from the field. Same story with Noël Le Graët, the president of the French Federation who salutes “a strong and exemplary decision”.
The sporting world as a whole greeted the decision of the two clubs with some relief. For everyday The Team, it is “a gesture of unprecedented dimension and incredible significance”. Of the Gazetta dello sport, in Italy, at AS, in Spain, many tributes were paid to the players, with a special mention addressed to Pierre Webo and Demba Ba, who strongly contributed to the game being stopped.
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“It is an episode among others, of awareness of racism, judge with L’Express the historian Patrick Clastres, professor at the University of Lausanne, within the Institute of Sports Sciences. I believe that athletes are becoming aware that they have a considerable means of pressure on their employers, the public, the governing bodies. There is a lock that has been lifted in the United States, with the mobilization of Colin Kaepernick in the NFL, more recently from the NBA and other professional leagues since the George Floyd affair. And since, in the age of social networks, continuous news, these images are sweeping over the whole world, all of this explains that there can be a shift that is also taking place in Europe.”
This is what the specialist in the history of sport retains, it is the solidarity with which the two teams act on Tuesday evening. “It was not the decision of a single player or a group, but a collective decision, of all the actors on the lawn, footballers and managers, because the victim, it must be remembered, is an assistant coach. This united momentum between all is extremely positive”, he analyzes. While expressing a reservation. “The fact that there were no spectators in the stadium could have played a part. Would professional footballers have acted the same way if the stadium was full of supporters?”.
Still steps to go
Because the world of professional football and more broadly of sport remains subject to various pressures on the issue of racism. For a long time, players have been told to shut up. Joseph Blatter, former president of the all-powerful FIFA, still advised players in 2013 to don’t leave the field in the event of an incident, preferring sporting or economic sanctions against the clubs. The latter are however rare, or of a low amount in view of the sums brewed by the environment. In January 2020, Lazio Rome, for example, was fined 20,000 euros for racist cries aimed at Brescia striker Mario Balotelli. A drop of water.
Tuesday evening, UEFA, the governing body of European football, however not stingy in advertising spot on the fight against racismno to racism“), was also distinguished by its silence on the current events, the instance contenting itself from a press release published at the end of the evening, announcing a “thorough investigation” and above all a postponement of the match to the next day, 7 p.m. Possible sign of embarrassment, the accused person being, another extremely rare fact, a referee himself, guarantor of the good performance of a meeting. “We expect too much from the athletes, and not enough from the leaders. Racism is much more present among the spectators, the leaders, than it is present among the players themselves”, underlines Patrick Clastres. “To my knowledge, very few anti-racism associations are asked by professional sports authorities to train leaders and referees.”
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Standing up as an athlete against racism, especially among footballers, is finally delicate from a personal point of view. “The players are trapped in their contract, which strongly restricts them in their public position”, recalls the historian. “It’s an extremely restrictive factor. A rule that adds to a tradition of omerta in sports circles in general. Finally, their education is special, their schooling is interrupted very early, they are infantilized by the institution, the clubs, which give them little autonomy. Their daily life is entirely taken care of. This plays against public speaking.”
Things are slowly starting to change. On social networks, personalities from the world of sport such as Antoine Griezmann, striker of the French team, basketball player Rudy Gobert were recently moved by the beating of black music producer, Michel Zecler, denounced by the Loopsider media. Until questioning in person the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. Kylian Mbappe, already him, had launched to his millions of subscribers: “My France to me it mixes, yeah, it’s a rainbow. She bothers you I know, because she doesn’t want you as a model . STOP RACISM.” A turning point?