The former captain of the France team faces a fine for remarks targeting PSG dating from 2019.
The former captain of the French football team Patrice Evra will be tried for “injure“Homophobic Monday at the police court in Paris, and incurs a fine for remarks targeting PSG dating from 2019, AFP learned from a source familiar with the matter on Thursday. Former defender and captain of Manchester United, Patrice Evra was unleashed on social networks in March 2019 after a victory for the Mancunians against PSG in the Champions League, insulting the former Parisian player Jérôme Rothen then launching in particular “Paris, you are fags, you are PD… Here, it’s the men who talk».
The player, accustomed to insults in the media or social networks, then posted a new message to apologize, ensuring that he was not homophobic. The Mousse and Stop Homophobia associations, supported by the anti-homophobia collective Rouge Direct, had filed a complaint, and Mr. Evra was indicted for “publicly insulting a group of people because of their sexual orientation».
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The player admitted to the judge having made the disputed remarks, referring to facts that allegedly took place on March 15, 2019, “birthday of footballer Paul Pogba“. In his order for committal for trial dated May 5, the investigating judge considers that Patrice Evra “spoke out in a private setting for the making of a video that was later posted on Snapchat without his knowledge». «The remarks were therefore made in a non-confidential manner, but not in public.“, and M. Evra “did not intend to make his words public».
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The non-public insult causes Mr. Pogba to incur a fine, in this case a fine of 1,500 euros, and earns him to appear Monday morning, October 17, before the Paris police court. If the offense of public insult had been retained, Mr. Evra would have appeared before the criminal court and would have been liable to one year’s imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros. Asked, his lawyer did not respond to AFP.
For Etienne Deshoulières, association lawyer, “the use of this homophobic insult by a former captain of the France team is not insignificant. This reinforces the climate of homophobia present in professional football.For Julien Pontes, spokesperson for Collectif Rouge Direct, “this trial is an unmissable opportunity to affirm that the impunity of homophobia in football is over“, which would be, according to him, a strong signal “a few weeks before the World Cup in Qatar».
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