8, September 2019
French Football Crisis: Too many matches stopped over homophobic chants 0
The head of French football said on Friday that “too many matches” have been stopped due to homophobic chants and banners, despite public outcry over a series of anti-gay incidents since the start of the 2019-2020 season.
Noël Le Graët, president of the French Football Federation (FFF), said that the FFF would not instruct referees to stop matches except in cases when a “whole stadium” was guilty of homophobic chanting.
“I think we’re stopping too many matches! That makes certain government ministers happy, but it bothers me. Football can’t be taken hostage by vulgarity,” said Le Graët in an interview with regional newspaper Ouest-France.
“Matches have been stopped when they shouldn’t have been,” Le Graët continued. “We will stop them if there is consistent homophobic abuse from the whole ground, but if among 30,000 people there are 2,000 imbeciles I don’t see why the other 28,000 should be punished.”
Since the start of the French football season less than a month ago on August 9, there have been at least 20 cases of fans chanting homophobic slurs or showing anti-gay banners during domestic games. By contrast, there were 111 incidents of homophobic abuse in England over the course of the entire 2017-2018 season, according to Kick It Out, a British pressure group for equality in the sport.
Le Graët’s organisation changed rules to allow matches to be stopped
Ironically, it was the body run by Le Graët, the FFF (Fédération française de football), which put in place new rules before the start of the 2019-2020 football season to allow referees to halt games in response to fans’ displays of homophobia.
For years, fans faced no consequences for engaging in the homophobic chanting common in French football, such as the use of the swear word “enculé,” which carries unmistakably anti-gay connotations.
However, the FFF was prompted to act after France’s Sport Minister Roxana Maracineau expressed outrage over fans’ anti-gay chants during Le Classique – the clash between bitter rivals PSG and Marseille – in March.
Saying that this sort of chanting made her want to stop taking her children to football matches, Maracineau expressed further shock over another case of homophobic chanting during a match between Lens and Valenciennes in April – leading the FFF to create new rules.
France’s Minister for Equality Marlène Schiappa publicly praised referee Clément Turpin after he stopped Marseille’s 2-1 win at Nice for over 10 minutes in August in response to anti-gay chants and the unfurling of homophobic banners by home fans.
PSG’s match at Metz two days later was also briefly halted because of two banners displayed by the hosts’ supporters: one reading “I won’t be on TV because my words are too gay”, the other saying “PSG, FFF, let me sing and tell you to go f*ck yourselves!”
‘The crisis will resolve itself’, says Le Graët
But Le Graët argued that a laissez-faire approach from politicians would be the best way to deal with the issue.
“Did football invent homophobia?” he asked, adding that “there are more important political issues”.
“This crisis will resolve itself,” the head of the FFF continued. “We will work with club presidents – people who don’t interfere every morning, who don’t just want to look good for the television cameras.”
These statements provoked a fierce response from Maracineau, who wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday that she was “astonished” by Le Graët’s words, before warning that “it must be remembered that homophobia is considered a form of discrimination in our society”.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
8, September 2019
Ambazonia-Nigeria Crisis: Understanding the appeal against life terms for S.Cameroons leaders 0
An appeal, funded by residents of Canada, has been lodged against the sentences of life imprisonment handed down last month by a Cameroonian military tribunal to six academics arrested in Abuja, Nigeria, and deported back to Cameroon in January 2018.
The academics – who were teaching in Nigerian universities and had lived in the country in some cases for many years, marrying Nigerians and raising children there – were accused of terrorism and of belonging to an outlawed organisation, the aim of which was to facilitate the secession of Anglophone Cameroon from the rest of the country.
The academics are: Professor Augustine Awasum of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Dr Tata Henry Kimeng, associate professor at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Dr Egbe Nguitui Ogork, associate professor at Bayero University, Kano; Dr Fidelis Nde-Che, associate professor at the American University of Nigeria in Yola; Dr Cornelius Kwanga, a senior lecturer at Umaru Musa Yar’adua University; and Dr Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe of the American University of Nigeria in Yola.
Ayuk Tabe is reportedly the first self-proclaimed president of “Ambazonia”, a breakaway state declared in October 2017 in two English-speaking regions of Cameroon.
Barrister was ‘merely an observer’
The academics’ barrister Paddy Yong told University World News his role in the hearing was merely that of an “observer” but he had filed an appeal a few days after the ruling.
He said some “patriotic” Anglophone Cameroonians resident in Canada had contributed jointly towards the non-refundable sum of US$10,000 required to appeal the tribunal’s decision. “I have sent this amount of money to a dedicated bank account of the government treasury in Yaoundé,” he confirmed.
He said as a sign of solidarity with the convicted academics, Anglophone lawyers in the country had unanimously agreed to go on strike for four days.
The six academics were arrested after a meeting in January 2018 at a hotel in Abuja, Nigeria, where they apparently gathered to discuss the humanitarian situation facing Anglophone Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria. They were among 47 other separatists also arrested at the same time.
Two major objections
Yong said the trial had not been open to the public and had gone ahead despite him raising two major objections.
“When the trial was to commence, I raised two fundamental objections. First, I objected to the fact the military tribunal was headed by Lieutenant Colonel Misse Njone Jacques Beaudoin and that five other high-ranking military officers were members of the presiding panel. I objected to the fact that those accused were civilians who did not participate in any military uprising.
“My second objection was to the fact of the trial being conducted in French. My clients are Anglophone Cameroonians. Therefore, the trial should be held in English.”
Yong said his two objections were rejected. “But the trial continued. My role was reduced to that of an observer,” he said.
According to Yong, the linguistic crisis had its roots in what he called the “naïve” marriage between elites of Anglophone Cameroon and Francophone Cameroon on 1 October 1961 to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. He said the bilingualism upon which the federal republic was founded had not prevailed for many years.
In March this year, two separate judgments handed down by the Federal High Court in Abuja found that the arrest and detention of the academics was unconstitutional and that their deportation from Nigeria to Cameroon was illegal.
Problematic judgment
Nigerian barrister Abdul Oroh, who represented the academics when they were still in Nigeria, told University World News the ruling was problematic on three grounds.
“First, a Nigerian High Court sitting in Abuja declared illegal the forceful abduction of these university teachers and said they should be returned from Cameroon to their respective universities in Nigeria where they were working.
“Second, the trial of civilians by a military court was challenged as an aberration in the Court of Law in Yaoundé. The military tribunal ignored this case and continued with its assignment.
“And third, the judgment of life imprisonment smacks of a travesty of justice,” he said.
Culled from University World News