Racist cries against Red Star: the president of Nancy determined “not to let this go”

2023-10-12 15:00:34

It didn’t take long. The morning after the match of the 10th day of National Nancy – Red Star marked by racist behavior coming from part of the Nancy public towards 3 Audon players, the Lorraine club was able to identify the author of monkey cries who also mimicked the animal’s movements. Reached by telephone, the president of AS Nancy Nicolas Holveck (52 years old), who was also at the head of Rennes as executive president between 2020 and 2022, is pleased to have found the culprit even if it still remains to be found his identity.

You identified the individual quickly. How did it happen ?

NICOLAS HOLVECK. It’s not because we don’t speak out after matches that we don’t do anything. I never express myself directly. I have been in football clubs for 25 years and I have understood that it is useless. On the pitch we hadn’t seen anything so we took into account what the Red Star players told us and then we launched the machine. We won’t let anything pass. We have filed a complaint against this individual. We saw on social networks that people had testimonies to this effect. We are ready to listen to them to now try to put a name to the images we have.

Were you able to view all the images?

Yes. There is only one person who is guilty of racist cries and gestures. Afterwards there were other inappropriate behaviors like middle fingers. The author is not in a stand where there is a group of supporters. Most of us know their member but this is not the case so it is more complicated. But we are not going to give up.

Your coach Benoît Pedretti spoke about the club’s past in the fight against racism…

Before becoming the president of Nancy, I stayed at the club for 17 years between 1997 and 2014 (manager then vice-president). In the 2000s, we carried out the first campaigns to fight racism, this was before UEFA launched its own. The European body even banned us in the European Cup from playing with a jersey displaying no racism… In 2008, when we were 4th in L1, we had very harsh groups of supporters. We had more than 80 stadium bans. It was the record in France. I never let anything go unnoticed. This earned me 6 months of police protection because it was a fierce fight with strong threats and we never gave up. In Nancy we don’t have the habit, like in the other clubs I’ve been to, of letting things happen. And this is not from today. This is why certain comments must be measured…

What do you mean ?

Habib Beye was very angry and I understand that, but when he says that our players went to greet that audience and he doesn’t understand. Already our players didn’t know at all. And imagine that our colored players would have endorsed that… It’s still strong coffee. If our players had seen this behavior, they would never have greeted this audience. In Nancy, we don’t hide dust under the carpet!