In a press release published Thursday evening, the Senegalese Football Federation comes to the defense of Idrissa Gueye, who withdrew last Saturday during the Ligue 1 day marked by support for the fight against homophobia. The authority severely tackles its French counterpart and its ethics council.
Idrissa Gueye can count on the unfailing support of the Senegalese Football Federation. This Thursday evening, it published a press release to defend the midfielder, who forfeited last weekend in Ligue 1, during the day against homophobia. The French Football Federation (FFF), through its National Ethics Council, had asked the player to explain his absence.
PSG had indicated that its player was absent for personal reasons while the players wore rainbow-coloured flocking on the back of their jerseys. “When ethics is based on hypotheticals and diktat, individual freedom is in danger, denounces the Senegalese Federation, which points the finger at the FFF. If it is difficult to find the legal, statutory or regulatory bases for such an approach in the texts of Football or sport in general, its purpose is on the other hand clear: to force the player to do what his free will inclines him to do.
Even Senegalese President Macky Sall took up the case, believing that the player’s religious beliefs “must be respected”. The National Ethics Council (CNE) of the FFF speaks for its part of a “serious situation”. “Is it really in this France that we were told and told about in our schools, the one whose motto is freedom, fraternity and equality for all? How can a body that claims to promote ethics in the Football can be based on speculations to address a person to enjoin him to express himself and worse still to appear with the jersey in LGBTQI + colors to put an end to said speculations?
The Federation is asking for evidence and could seize the authorities
This Thursday, the collective of the CUP, of the Ultras of the PSG, also gave its support to Idrissa Gueye. If the Senegalese has not yet been sanctioned, he must meet with his leaders to talk about the subject.
“Isn’t this reminiscent of those practices of another time in the classrooms of schools where to punish the ‘rebellious’ pupil, the master or the professor put him to the torture of humiliation in front of his other comrades? of class for the sanction as for the example, compares the Fédération du Parisien. It is an elementary principle in law which says that no one can be required to provide proof of a negative fact. Why does the National Council of Ethics say didn’t he start by asking the French media who made the accusation to provide proof of their allegations? Better, why didn’t she contact the player’s club who communicated on the reasons of the non-participation of Idrissa Gana Guéye in the controversial match?
The Senegalese Football Federation “reserves the right to seize the competent international bodies” in this case, in a case that “resembles institutionalized harassment”. The player has “exceptional human qualities” according to his Federation, which also notes “his strong sense of respect for others without concession”.