There is Camille, 10, banned from fighting against fighting boys for religious reasons.
Omar Tabich, referee who hears a spectator describe him as a “dirty Arab” during a match where he officiates.
Or Marc
(Editor's note: the first name has been changed)
, raped in the locker room of his rugby club because he is homosexual.
Published this Thursday, “The black book of sport” (Plon), written by the vice-president in charge of sports for the Ile-de-France region (Free!) Patrick Karam and journalist Magali Lacroze, tells their story and draws up a inventory of the shortcomings that eat away at sport in France.
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Sports clubs, fertile grounds for communitarianism: "There is an urgent need to act"
The book comes out while some of these subjects have been mentioned in the news in recent months.
Sexual violence, returned to the fore with the testimony of former skater Sarah Abitbol at the start of the year and in the viewfinder of the Ministry of Sports.
Racism, "little or not present" in football according to the president of the French Federation, Noël Le Graët.
So many points swept away by the book, of which Le Parisien exclusively publishes several testimonies.
In his book, Patrick Karam draws up an inventory of the shortcomings that eat away at sport in France.
LP / Aurélie Ladet
SEXUAL VIOLENCE
Laëtitia Pachoud: "The emergency hall"
The president approaches her.
Laëtitia
(Editor's note: Pachoud, vice-president of the French Rugby Federation)
tells us about the scene.
"It's the same every time, you know: when we arrive in clubs with this cap, we are not really welcome… No, they don't wait for us with a smile and a raclette!
Nervous.
Uncomfortable.
Closed, notes Laëtitia.
Still mortified by what they just learned.
The complaint of a young girl of 15, filed against the head coach.
A rape complaint.
" Not him !
It can't be him!
We have always known him!
"
A few days earlier, the coach had organized a private party at his home with the young players of his rugby team.
"Tonight at my house, guys, don't hang around in the shower!"
»Explosion of joy in the locker room.
Like on the pitch that afternoon, when they snatched victory from the other team.
Thus began the "third half", which marks the end of the fighting.
Camaraderie, relaxation.
Alcohol too.
Often a lot of alcohol.
A moment of celebration, a reward, after the fierce struggle on the ground.
That evening, one of the players goes to the coach with his girlfriend.
The teenager knows the troop well, she often comes to pick up her lover after training, attends matches on weekends.
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She is not part of the club, but is integrated into it.
The two lovers are preparing to spend an evening “with the family” with the rugby buddies.
"This evening stems from a complaint for rape which will be judged in corrections a year and a half after the facts", summarizes Laëtitia Pachoud.
[…]
In the club president's office, then: “Listen to me, gentlemen.
I'm here to help you, not to ram you.
»Silence.
In front of Laëtitia Pachoud, the black eyes of the club president and the coach indicted by the young girl.
"And what is shelving if it isn't an accusation?"
- It's a protective measure.
When you report a sexual assault in one of our clubs, the rule is to sideline the accused, period.
I am here to accompany you.
- That's nonsense, this story, Laëtitia, we've known it for twenty-five years!
"
“In general, the first quarter of an hour is difficult.
They are very closed.
I tell them that if they want to be helped, they have to reason, that they free themselves from any notion of affect vis-à-vis the coach.
If they get there, it's won, because they don't want to leave a predator in the club, ”she analyzes.
“On the other hand, I warn you, if you want to fend for yourself, you had better get it right.
"
Across the street, the men don't say a word.
Laëtitia's red car set off again on the dirt road, hoping for a quick awareness.
“Where the situation was borderline, it is that during more than a year of setting aside, this man continued to train children, in the team next door.
For him to be suspended, it would have been necessary for the president of the club of origin to notify me in writing of the facts of which he was suspected, to report them to me so that we could not remove him, but suspend his license. .
The stalemate sounds incredible, but it is real.
" He did it ?
Did the club tell you about its coach?
“It was complicated.
I had to threaten to sue him, ”she explains.
The exchange she describes to us is strained.
"But you understand: if he is condemned, it is the image of the club, it will hurt us!
- "I do not understand anything at all.
You have twenty-four hours to send me an email or I'll report you!
"
"And I got the email twenty-four hours later, there you go.
"She raises her head suddenly:" A non-denunciation of a crime is three years in prison.
I can tell you that it wakes some people up when we tell them!
" She sighs.
“It's true that it's a bit like the emergency room here every day!
And yet, we are light years away from transparency.
We must tell the children in the clubs to speak… We must stop being silent.
In this case, justice will only retain the touching.
Baptiste: "I camouflaged everything"
A few days earlier, Baptiste
(Editor's note: young basketball player)
and two of his teammates responded to their coach's invitation and found him at the municipal swimming pool, about fifteen kilometers from the basketball club.
“It's quite common at this time of year to do this kind of activity, with the team or part of the team.
The swimming pool or the bowling alley, for example, to mark the end of a season, ”explains Baptiste.
He has no reason to be suspicious.
The temperatures are particularly high.
The teenagers dive, with delight, in the water of the outdoor pool.
They splash around, drink the cup and laugh loudly.
The coach is amused by their liveliness.
After a while, he asks them: "Do you want to take a trip to the sauna?"
The children hesitate.
The adult insists.
" You want to try ?
"" We said OK, let's try!
And there, the coach warns us:
Who says sauna ... says no swimsuit!
He removes his, we imitate it, and, jokingly, he asks:
Show your cock?
We understand he probably wants to play, jokingly, at comparing sizes.
At that point, my two friends left the sauna.
And that's where he started, ”Baptiste tells us.
A quarter of an hour later, the sauna door opens.
The trainer said to Baptiste: “Don't say anything, you don't.
- Yes.
The sauna door closes, heavily, on the secret that the teenager will carry over twenty years.
“My friends asked me what happened when they left the sauna.
I told them.
I don't think they told their parents about it because the coach stayed on until the end of the season, I imagine if they had known they would have done something.
"
He didn't say anything to his parents either.
Summer has arrived.
Baptiste moved with his family to the southwest of France.
[…] Two years later.
Return to the village of his childhood, for a long weekend with friends of the family.
He accompanies his mother to the supermarket.
At the bend of a ray, he falls on the former trainer.
The latter suggests that she take part in a basketball training session that same evening with a few adults.
Baptiste is in heaven.
“I wanted to show them what I had learned in my new club.
"
The coach promises his mother to bring Baptiste back to prevent him from driving.
The mother warmly thanks him.
On the floor of his former club, Baptiste surpasses himself.
He grew up.
His muscles have thickened.
Progress noted and welcomed by the coach.
"I'll bring you back," said the latter, smiling, after training.
[…]
“We had not gone fifty meters before he started touching again.
You did not forget ?
We have something to finish, you and me.
-
No.
No !
I said.
He stepped in.
I remember at that point he got angry.
He did it again.
I said no once again.
He was yelling at me not to repeat anything.
I said no, he was still screaming.
I have this vision of him, very angry, in the seat next to me.
I was crying.
And I promised.
That evening, the coach therefore accompanied Baptiste home.
His parents thanked him for his kindness.
He stayed on the doorstep for a few minutes, chatting with them.
Baptiste kept his promise for twenty years.
“I told myself that he was the adult, that he was right.
I was brought up that way.
And I forgot.
I wanted to forget.
But sometimes it came back to me, I thought I had to talk about it.
Then I forgot again.
I wanted to tell my mother everything, but I often forgot, and above all I didn't want her to feel guilty, ”adds the young man.
One day, he breaks the silence and decides to tell his girlfriend about it.
“I threw it all away.
Which freed me up in a way, but something was missing.
Say it loud and clear - publicly.
Without risking exposure.
In front of his computer, under a pseudonym.
[…] He asked his mother to read the message posted online, on his anonymous account.
Immediate phone call from his mom.
Upset.
"But what did I miss?
Why haven't I seen anything?
Why didn't I understand?
"I tried to reassure her.
I told him:
You didn't see anything because I didn't want you to see it, I was covering everything up.
I wanted to tell you then, and then I was afraid, and I ended up forgetting.
Something has changed since he took up the pen online.
“It did me good to write it.
I tell myself that there may be people who will say to themselves, seeing and reading my testimony:
This happened to me too.
"
HOMOPHOBIA
Gay Ligue 1 footballer forced to take photos with friend
This is the story of this footballer who plays in Ligue 1, in a French club.
He categorically refuses to be named in the book.
It is through the eyes of her boyfriend at the time, Kamel
(Editor's note: the first name has been changed)
, that we tell this slice of life where concealment becomes second nature.
In front of the fountain, in a cobbled square.
A young man, a young woman.
They embrace shining eyes.
She smiles.
He kisses her on the cheek, in the hollow of her dimple.
She threw back her head.
They are there, both, at the edge of the fountain.
Olivier and Olivia.
In front, spotlights, a lens, and Olivier's agent.
The friend is there too, in the shadows, behind them, but the agent does not speak to him.
Before changing poses, Olivier looks for him.
[…] Kamel looks at Olivier, he looks at him.
It's a game, nothing more.
The agent follows Olivier's gaze.
Kamel smiles at him.
The agent is fuming.
He would like the friend to be even more discreet.
This time, Olivier holds Olivia tight against him, she has tied her two arms around his waist, she rests her head on his chest, laughing.
Kamel stares at Olivier's muscular arms, his latest tattoo, the same as his.
[…] The agent is satisfied.
Olivier has his makeup removed.
Olivia feels guilty.
A few hours later, the photos are sent to a celebrity magazine.
Just before the release, they will be posted on Olivier's Instagram account, and on that of his football team.
[…]
“At the beginning, that wasn't a problem for us.
His agent had asked him to take a photo with a girlfriend so that no one would find out that he was gay.
The club president didn't want that to be known either.
We were instructed to remain discreet, to see each other outside the city.
We had no choice, ”says the former boyfriend today.
But Olivier saw this situation very badly.
He eats a lot.
He becomes angry.
His teammates feel the flaw.
He follows the advice of his agent less and less.
One day, one of the team members learns that Olivier is in a relationship with a man.
“It went around the locker room very quickly.
Olivier did not hide anything.
He assumed - well, in the locker room.
But it didn't go very well.
In order not to be taken to task by the supporters in an away match, they refused to let it be revealed.
They weren't very nice to him, they called him a diva.
It was talking behind his back.
"
The pressure soon becomes unbearable.
Olivier breaks away from the group.
He changes agent.
He eats more and more.
He is sad.
When his contract is renewed, the situation escalates.
Until the break.
Olivier must change clubs.
He still has not revealed his homosexuality.
But he refuses to take more photos with Olivia.
Marc (Editor's note: the first name has been changed), raped because he is homosexual
“They had been made aware of my sexual orientation by one of the players who had heard about me in high school.
I take responsibility for my homosexuality and it bothers a lot of people.
At the club they said they wanted to have fun with me.
They used that word, yes, have fun.
"
In the locker room that day, the player forces him to kneel in front of him.
“I didn't let it go.
I screamed for him to stop.
The coach has arrived.
He looked at us, he left without a word.
I screamed even louder.
This time the director arrived, he grabbed the youngster, he pinned him against the wall and told him to stop:
Otherwise you take my hand in your mouth
.
Since then, I have never changed in the locker room.
I avoid showers.
"[…]
But, on a rainy Saturday, Marc has to put his bag away.
And enter the locker room after the match, to collect your things.
His teammates are then on his heels.
Marc is startled.
The door has just closed.
A hand hangs his swimsuit soaked in sweat and mud, slams it against the wall, in a corner of the locker room.
He is afraid.
“I had put my bag in a corner, near the door.
I did not see it coming.
He violently forced me to do things I didn't want to do, to get revenge, he said, for being taken to task by the headmaster because of me.
The other players take a shower, get dressed, watch.
Some people joke.
I amuse them.
"
Marc said nothing more.
He no longer controls anything.
Let it be done, and quickly.
"Was he the same player as the first time?"
Marc struggles to answer.
He's still there, with them, in the locker room.
" Yes.
Yes it was the same player.
No, nobody said anything.
A new time.
"[…]
The player is gone.
Marc collapses on the ground.
He is alone in the locker room.
The other players followed without a word for him.
He staggers to the showers.
He turns off the light.
Hot water once again softens the pain of the rape.
No one intervened.
Management was not notified.
Life went on.
The boy never approached Marc again after training.
[…]
Several years have passed.
Marc walks in the streets of Montpellier.
On the sidewalk opposite, he sees it.
The pictures come back.
In the street, the crowd advances, nonchalant, it is a Sunday in September, it is still very hot.
Marc accelerates.
He doesn't want to cross him.
The images catch up with him.
The locker room.
The shower.
The sound of water on the cold tiles.
The boy comes to meet her.
“His eyes in mine.
His eyes no longer have the glow of yesterday, the challenge he put in them.
Mine are black.
Awaken my anger.
He apologized.
He told me he was sorry for what he had done and that thanks to me he had found his way.
He loves men.
"
Motionless, silent, Marc stares at the horizon behind the boy's shoulder.
He relives his ordeal.
He hears himself screaming in the locker room.
He hears the laughter of others.
And the coach who comes and goes without intervening.
" I said nothing.
I ignored him.
I went.
We cannot forgive these things.
"
RACISM
Omar Tabich, the referee described as a "dirty Arab"
In Vaucluse, a departmental division football match pits RC Provence against Sorgues, on a Sunday afternoon in December.
[…] The ground is soft.
Wet grass.
The crampons slide and sink into the moving earth.
“Some tackles were at the limit of a dangerous gesture.
I asked the player to calm down, ”continues Omar Tabich.
Referee's warning.
Whistle.
Player protest.
The high verb.
[…]
“In the district, we have the possibility of sanctioning players with a white card.
These are temporary stoppages of play, as a final warning.
So white square up.
Whistle.
The player is suspended for a few minutes.
His trainer is fuming.
The athlete leaves the field, the local supporters get carried away.
[…]
A cry, louder than the others, coming from the refreshment bar.
And who is addressing the bench.
“Don't talk to him!
He only sees what he wants, this dirty Arab!
" " It is not possible.
I didn't hear those words… Not here, not like that… Come on, it's okay, you're going to continue the meeting, ”Omar thinks.
Free kick, in favor of the opposing team.
The referee takes his place and gives his instructions.
"And it resumes.
Another voice, closer this time.
“Dirty boulaya [bearded], you're not at home here, go back to your country.
"" One of my assistant referees signals to me that it comes from behind the bench of the leaders of RC Provence.
“Some Sorgues players are from the Maghreb, the team is in shock.
[Omar Tabich decides to stop the match.] The referees also make their way to the locker room.
A man then rushes down the stands.
"This same gentleman who insulted me a few minutes earlier stands three meters away from me and says:
You dirty Arab motherfucker, you're not at home here.
He insists.
"
Omar looks conspicuously on the host club's bench.
"I say to myself: there, they will react!
Well no.
Nothing happens.
The president of Sorgues tries to keep the supporter away from the opposing team.
Me, I have tears in my eyes.
Honestly, what I experienced is unacceptable.
"
[…] I summon the managers of the two clubs and their captains:
Gentlemen, you can all go back to the locker room to shower, the meeting will not resume.
I stop the match.
Omar's voice is heavy with sadness.
“The leaders of Sorgues tell me they understand.
"A little further, coming from the cloakroom of RC Provence, Omar hears one of the managers of the club vituperate:" It's rubbish, we can no longer talk to these referees, now ... "
“In the locker room, then, they accused me of having stirred up racial hatred on the pitch,” Omar said with a sigh.
I would have preferred to be hit, to take blows rather than to go through it.
That's what I told the gendarmes when I went to file a complaint afterwards.
"
Supervised by his assistants, Omar walks towards his vehicle.
At the bar, he sees the supporter, the one in the stands.
The man is in the middle of the players and the leaders, drinks “a drink with them, in a relaxed atmosphere”, as if nothing had happened.
"Sir, aren't you ashamed to say such things in front of children?"
Know, sir, that I am French.
My parents are French.
My grandparents are French.
"
The referee leaves the scene, lodges a complaint and reports the facts to his federation, the Mediterranean League, before notifying the LICRA, which in turn alerts the French Football Federation.
[…] But, a few weeks later, the sanction of the disciplinary commission falls.
“For RC Provence, a suspension match on its ground, the match lost for this meeting against Sorgues and a 250 euros fine.
For Sorgues, 100 euros fine.
"
"It does not stop there," says Omar Tabich, because he is also sanctioned.
By three months of suspension for excessive words or gestures towards a supporter and breach of sports ethics.
“Sad decision.
Sad football in our district.
But I'm going to fight, and we won't stop there.
"
Olivier Bernard and racism in the stadiums
Olivier Bernard started his career as a professional footballer at the Olympique Lyonnais training center.
“I was young at the time!
“In the French team among young people, outdoor matches are organized.
During a season, the French meet the young Turks, in their country.
[…]
From the lawn, coming from all over the stands, they make out an unknown refrain.
“We heard that during the whole match, they chanted to the beat:
Tur / ky-e!
Tur / ky-e!
We did not try to understand, it rather amused us!
He remembers years later.
[…]
“But on the way to the locker room, the interpreter comes to see us.
You remained calm!
comments the latter.
We look at each other smiling.
While they insulted you, you remained very calm!
Around the interpreter, a small group forms.
“Here we understand that the Turkish supporters did not say
Tur / key-e!
Turk / key-e
… but
Monkey-e, monkey-e.
(Editor's note: monkey in English).
"[…]
“We knew it was racist, but it was something we had never heard, we likened it more to provocation.
At the time, it was not as clear, we did not understand as today, ”says Olivier Bernard.
So they laugh about it.
To forget.
[…]
“At Inter Milan
(Editor's note: he faces with Newcastle)
, this is where I felt the strongest racism.
I felt very lonely.
Because practically the whole stadium was doing that.
It was… very loud.
Olivier is 22 that night.
" It's always the same thing.
Monkey calls are their thing.
It's desolation at that moment, ”he says.
RADICALIZATION
Camille, "put aside"
In two hours, it will be the fight.
[…] She's been talking about it all week, about her weekend wrestling competition.
Camille has just turned 10.
A few months of practice at the wrestling club and already his second competition.
You had to see her with her medal, the first time, savor the memories she made for herself.
After an hour and a half in the car, it's here.
The girl's father remembers.
Screams, movement, and the laughter of his daughter.
“I go through the list of fights.
The first is ... well, in an hour and a half, we have time to warm up.
I'm looking for other fights.
This is not a mistake, my daughter is not there.
My daughter only has one fight.
With another girl.
Who, too, has no other attributed fights.
[…] I take the measure of what is playing out before our eyes.
She saw me rushing towards the organizers.
"Tell me, sir, my daughter only has one scheduled fight, there must be some mistake ...
- Your name ?
Ah, but that's because there is only one girl in her category.
- She can run with a boy of the same weight, there are many in her category!
- No, it's impossible, parents don't want boys to fight against girls.
- And why can't my daughter fight against their boys?
- I can't do anything, sir, you have to see the organizers.
"
[…] The lack of diversity assumed in a club in its discipline corresponds to one of the “weak signals” to which the president of the wrestling federation was nevertheless made aware during training against radicalization in sport.
When the presidents of wrestling clubs have a doubt about what is acceptable or what is not, within their structures, a question on secularism, on the process of radicalization, they turn to Bruno Dedieu, radicalization referent.
“They call me, I advise them!” Said the latter.
In thirty years, it is true that I have seen the struggle evolve with religious practices that are a little more present.
[…] The important thing is to follow the rule.
You tell them:
For religious or political questions, it is out of the question to give in, the rules of the federation indicate that boys can fight with girls up to 11 years old.
It's mixed.
On the other hand, if you believe that it is a question of safety for the wrestlers in terms of level for example, there is okay.
"[…]
- There, precisely, was it a religious question?
- Yes.
So it was not acceptable.
His decision has allowed some parents to get girls not to fight with boys, in strict application of a certain religious practice.
This confirmed rule was shared by all the competitors that day.
The local president was not sanctioned.
“We learn from our mistakes!
», We simply told him.
Leila: "Listen to what your brother says"
“Before she spoke to me, Leila was 17 years old.
And promises of podiums
(Editor's note: in combat sports)
.
The words fell like that, between us.
"[…]
- "I will no longer be able to come to the club, Réza
(Editor's note: educator)
.
"
“I understood immediately.
She had to say it.
She is in front of me.
She's shaking.
It started with the hands.
Tears are streaming down her face.
Not a word.
"
- "Why can't you come, Leila?"
"
- "I can no longer play sports.
"
“She is devastated.
[…] They forbade her what she loved the most in the world, her passion, and all her social life that went with… Her family forced her to give up sport.
"
“She explains to me in a sad little voice.
One evening, she was coming back from the club […] Her brother's voice behind her bedroom door, ajar.
Softly authoritarian.
Leila, come in and sit down.
She opens the door.
Her mother is sitting on the bed.
[…] The brother explains that religion forbids him to play sports with men.
That she will no longer be able to return to the club, that she will have to stop competitions and training sessions.
That she meets a lot of boys there, in inappropriate clothes.
Leila turns to her mother:
Mom, please say something!
I got really strong, you know I beat everyone today!
She smiles:
Listen to what your brother says to you, my dear.
"
“One of the big problems that we encounter today with French people of Muslim culture, and who want to keep a link with their original identity, is that this generation does not master literary Arabic, [ …] People who do not master the writing of their religion cannot seek information at the source.
They are therefore easily influenced and follow to the letter the religious prescriptions that are told to them - which they believe to be obligatory in order to be a good Muslim.
"[…]
To help Leila, Réza takes on a delicate role.
“It was not easy, because you alienate the whole family, you are the disruptor.
[…] Leila found a respected theologian in the Muslim religion who confronted her brother with his contradictions.
He made her think, to whom we had explained that girls should not play sports, that it was written.
Leila's story is symptomatic of a radicalization that took place within a family and of which sport "has been the reveal".
"The black book of sport - Sexual violence, homophobia, rigged bets, racism, radicalization ...", by Magali Lacroze and Patrick Karam, Ed. Plon, 480 pages.
/ DR