Several files were on the table of the Disciplinary Committee of the Professional Football League, meeting this Wednesday evening. Starting with the banner deployed on March 4 by RC Lens supporters during the derby against LOSC (1-1). “BSN – DVE, it starts in friendship, it ends in gay porn”, could we read on this banner, written to chamber the ultra groups of Nice and Lille but denounced by several associations for its homophobic character.
This Wednesday evening, the LFP sentenced RC Lens to a fine of 15,000 euros, including 8,000 suspended for these writings “of an offensive and discriminatory nature”. In 2019, the club was fined 50,000 euros by the same commission for homophobic chants heard during another derby against Valenciennes.
The evening sanction questions the associations fighting against homophobia in sport, such as the Rouge Direct collective with the “Parisien”: “It is in no way a deterrent and it is much less than that of 2019. There, these are 7,000 euros (Editor’s note: plus 8,000 suspended) when it is a repeat offense. And our only question is: why RC Lens while Saint-Étienne and OM are spared despite the seriousness and systematic nature of homophobic chants at Geoffroy-Guichard and at the Vélodrome stadium? “.
The Rouge Direct collective has indeed pointed the finger in recent weeks at these songs heard in Marseille or Saint-Étienne and is calling for sanctions against these two clubs.
In addition, the LFP sanctioned the fans of FC Nantes this Wednesday evening. They will be deprived of two away games for lighting smoke bombs at the Parc des Princes on March 4. Finally, OGC Nice was fined 20,000 euros for the smoke bombs brandished by its supporters on March 3 during the reception of Auxerre. The sanction was accompanied by a “suspended closure for two matches of the lower part of the Popular South stand of the Allianz Riviera”.
Finally, Leonardo Balerdi, whose expulsion on Sunday with Marseille against Strasbourg (2-2) following contact with Strasbourg striker Habib Diallo launched in depth, had been contested by the Marseillais, was suspended for two matches.