By Mark Baber
November 7 – Racist comments by Bordeaux coach Willy Sagnol have ignited a new row in French football with his remarks being defended in some quarters whilst Pape Diouf, the former president of Olympique de Marseille) called for a boycott of Ligue 1.
Sagnol told Sud Ouest daily, “The advantage of the typical African player is that he is not expensive when you take him, he’s generally ready to fight and he is powerful on the pitch. But football is not just that, it’s also technique, intelligence, discipline.”
He then went on to expand on his racial theories saying, “Nordics are good. They have a good mentality. A football team is a mixture, it’s like life, it’s like France. You have defenders, attackers, midfielders, fast ones, big ones, small ones and technical ones.”
Sagnol also said that “As long as I remain coach of Bordeaux there will be far fewer African players coming to Girondins de Bordeaux.” Giving the African Cup of Nations as an excuse he said, “I don’t fancy seeing 12 players clearing off for two months every two years.”
Sagnol’s remarks were immediately attacked by anti-racism groups such as SOS Racisme which denounced Sagnol for “crassly associating ‘Blacks’ and ‘Nordics’ with being physical and intelligent respectively.”
SOS Racisme has called on the French Football Federation, the French League and the government to “take immediate and appropriate action and France’s ruling Socialist Party has also called for appropriate sanctions.
Lilian Thuram, France’s most-capped player, said he was “surprised” and “disappointed” by the remarks and said, “Unfortunately there is always prejudice about people coming from Africa, black people. We always talk about their strength and never their intelligence. These comments only back-up such prejudice.”
“I think that [Sagnol] must have played alongside players of African origin whether at international or club level and might have noticed that there were intelligent, disciplined players who were very good tactically.”
However, Sagnol has defended by his club president Jean-Louis Triaud, who claimed Sagnol’s remarks were being maliciously interpreted and Sports Minister Thierry Braillard described Sagnol’s comments as “mere clumsiness”.
As doubts that any effective action will be taken against Sagnol have grown, Pape Diouf penned an op ed in Le Monde lamenting that in France, Sagnol and other purveyors of “brown (fascist) ideology” have no fear of “administrative or legal sanction,” blasting the “singular and nauseating complicity” between Bordeaux and Sagnol and urging African players to boycott France’s Ligue 1 championship for a day in order to “break this routine”.
The controversy echoes that over Laurent Blanc’s role in a discussion over quotas of black and Arab players in French youth teams which was eventually swept under the carpet after an investigation concluded there was “nothing to suggest” the national coach “condones discriminatory guidelines.”
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