The French soccer league released a new plan Monday to help the government crack down on fans who participate in homophobic chants during matches.
Nathalie Boy de la Tour, the president of the league, unveiled the plan, which entails working with the International League against racism and anti-Semitism, or LICRA, to help fans report incidents. Violators would then be prosecuted based on French laws, which prohibits gay slurs.
French law makes it a crime for anyone to make a comment “of a more general nature tending to denigrate homosexuals as a whole” in public.
“The LICRA will be able to start the appropriate judicial procedures,” Boy de la Tour said. “And it will also give a basis to work with to our disciplinary commission.”
Violaters of the French law face steep fines and jail time. “If qualified as homophobic, they can be punished with a 22,500 euro ($25,000) fine and six months in prison,” Frederic Potier, the government’s special representative on racism, anti-Semitism, and discrimination, said.
In the past, the French league has allowed homophobic chants to carry on during matches despite being against the law as they had no mechanism in place to catch violators.
