a new gesture to report an insult or a racist gesture during a match

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 this unprecedented instruction into its protocol and transmitted it 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 anti-racist gesture.

Insults and monkey cries

The recognizable sign was first introduced at the Women’s Under-20 World Cup (U20) in Colombia this summer. The protocol is as follows: when during a game, a footballer 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 interrupt the match. Then the temporary cessation of this if the acts persist, by ordering the players to return to the locker room. If the facts continue, then the match will be definitively interrupted.

If the gesture has not yet been used during a match, it is not impossible that it will be in the short term, as the question of racism in modern football is a scourge far from being resolved. From ex-PSG player Dani Alves to French world champion Samuel Umtiti, including French team goalkeeper Mike Maignan more recently in Italy, insults and other monkey cries still remain omnipresent in the stands. ‘Europe.

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