The remarks, confirmed and denounced by the two clubs, were made at the end of a simple friendly match between Mondeville and Hérouville.
It was supposed to be just a friendly match. A football match like hundreds of others every weekend on the pitches of France. But this match played on Sunday between the Normandy clubs of Mondeville and Hérouville, both playing in the regional championship, located in the suburbs of Caen and barely six kilometers apart, descended into the unacceptable.
According to the X account of CDF_Football, which revealed the information, “a racist incident” took place after the game. According to this account, a player from Mondeville, in fact, insulted and threatened an opponent. “I’m going to burn your country, dirty Arab!”, the person concerned is said to have shouted. The tweet was relayed by many accounts and has been seen more than 250,000 times. Provoking a wave of hate on the networks.
During a friendly match today, unbearable and unacceptable remarks were made by a USON player…
The Mondeville club immediately reacted to the “unbearable and unacceptable remarks” of one of its players. Posting a text on its Facebook account explaining that it had immediately sanctioned the player, who was excluded from the club. “During a friendly match today (Sunday), unbearable and unacceptable remarks were made by a USON Mondeville player. Notified at 4:50 p.m., the club took the necessary measures at 5:10 p.m., namely the immediate exclusion of the player from the club and the presentation of apologies to the president of the opposing club. USON Mondeville will never accept remarks incompatible with the values of the club.”
When asked on Monday, the latter refused “to express themselves further”, simply referring to the press release published the day before. The leaders of the Hérouville club, for their part, first “took the time to think” and “checked the information” before responding to Le Parisien on Monday afternoon. “It’s sad, discouraging to see this, everything had gone well until then, the match had taken place without incident, assures Mohamed Belouadani, president of Hérouville. We have very good relations with Mondeville, we know each other, we are neighbors. There is no antagonism between the two clubs, there are sometimes blows and cards during matches but like everywhere else. No more, no less.”
“Mondeville’s reaction was the right one”
The situation apparently degenerated after the whistle. At the moment when the players in the match, most of whom know each other, greet each other and chat on the way to the locker rooms. “One of our players simply told his opponent that it was a friendly match and that there was no point in getting angry on the pitch and, then, he was insulted,” Belouadani explains.
The racist remarks we are talking about were made when the two teams were returning to the locker room. It was his teammates and his managers who heard them and intervened. My players, however, were not aware. They didn’t hear anything.” “There were no altercations,” insists the manager.
Not being at the stadium on Sunday afternoon, Mohamed Belouadani discovered the situation through a message from his counterpart in Mondeville. “He sent me a message yesterday (Sunday) at 5:15 p.m. to tell me that he apologized for the remarks made by one of his players.
We unfortunately hear these insults too often on the pitch, we have blacks, Arabs in the team, I am of Algerian origin myself, but Mondeville’s reaction was the right one. They are angry with their player for insulting one of ours.”
Hérouville is not considering filing a complaint for the moment. “I don’t think we need to do more,” the president said. The player has been permanently banned from the club, we are not going to ask for more.” Without prosecution, however, nothing prevents this player from taking out a license with another club.
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