a new gesture to denounce an insult or a racist gesture during a match – Libération

2024-10-04 18:54:46

The Professional Football League (LFP) is now offering players the opportunity to signal racist acts by placing a hand sign during professional football matches.

Arms crossed at the wrists. This is the new gesture that players will be able to make on French pitches in the event of racist incidents. The Professional Football League integrated these unprecedented instructions into its protocol and forwarded them to French professional clubs in mid-September.

The gesture was imagined last May, during the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok, Thailand. The world football body had listed a series of measures and ideas to better combat acts of a discriminatory and racist nature, including this <a href="https://time.news/the-anti-racist-gesture-arrives-on-french-football-fields/" title="The anti-racist gesture arrives on French football fields”>anti-racist gesture.

FIFA Legends present at the 74th FIFA Congress! 📸

All the FIFA legends in 🇹🇭 Bangkok joined FIFA President Gianni Infantino on stage after announcing the five pillars of action to form a global stand against racism. pic.twitter.com/JwExCxLg3Z

— FIFA (@FIFAcom) May 17, 2024

Insults and monkey shouts

The recognizable sign was first introduced at the Under-20 (U20) Women’s World Cup in Colombia this summer. The protocol is as follows: when during a match a player considers himself the victim of an insult or a gesture of a racist nature, he will now be able to make this gesture in the direction of the refereeing body. The referee first decides whether to stop the match. Then the temporary suspension of this if the facts persist, ordering the players to return to the locker rooms. If the events continue, the match will be definitively interrupted.

If the gesture has not yet been used during a match, it is not excluded that it will be used in the short term, since the issue of racism in modern football is a plague far from being resolved. From former PSG player Dani Alves to French world champion Samuel Umtiti, through French team goalkeeper Mike Maignan most recently in Italy, insults and other monkey shouts still remain omnipresent in the stands of Europe.

In Spain, a fan of Spanish club Mallorca was sentenced on September 26 to 12 months in prison and a three-year stadium ban for racist insults against Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior and former Villarreal player Samuel Chukwueze in February 2023 during the Liga de Mallorca plays at home against Real Madrid and Villarreal at the Son Moix stadium.