Indicator history

Hate speech as a ground for imposing sanctions to sport clubs is applied in practice. Here are some examples:

- Friday February 22, before the beginning of the match Bastia-Libourne (L2), the supporters of Bastia deployed racist banner, against a player of Libourne (Boubacar Kebé, who is from Burkina-Faso), who had been excluded from the preceding match because he had given the Bastia supporters - who uttered racist insults to him - the finger. The Professional Football League (LFP) decided to sportingly sanction the Bastia Sporting Club by withdrawing a point from it (sanction confirmed in appeal and by the French National Olympic and Sporting Committee). It is a decision without precedent in France;

- Saturday February 23, after the match Lyon-Metz (L1), several supporters of Metz demonstrated racist beheviour (racist insults, nazi salutes…). Because of these incidents, and because of the previous one in Valenciennes, the LFP decided to withdraw from the Football Club of Metz a point and the impose an obligation to play the next match behind closed doors;

- Saturday March 29, during the League Cup Final Lens-Paris, some supporters of the Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG) deployed a very large banner “Pédophiles, chômeurs, consanguins : bienvenue chez les Ch’tis” (“Paedophiles, unemployed, consanguineous: welcome at Ch' tis” – the banner made a reference to a very famous film in France “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis”, which is about the people living in the North of France, and who are called “Ch’tis”). This xenophobic banner caused a very sharp emotion in France and many reactions. On April 17, 2008 the Minister of Interior dissolved the PSG supporter club “Les Boulogne Boys”, under the terms of the law 2006-784, and on April 30, 2008 the LFP condemned the PSG by excluding it from the League Cup in 2008-2009.