In a tweet, the star striker of the France team Kylian Mbappé took the president of the French Football Federation Noël Le Graët on the wrong foot.
If Noël Le Graët spoke on Sunday of the lack of support felt by Kylian Mbappé after the elimination at the Euro, the French international reacted on Twitter, regretting that the president of the FFF did not take into account “racism “of which he would have been a victim.
In a tweet, the Parisian striker nuanced a statement by the president of the French Football Federation (FFF) in an interview with the Sunday newspaper where the leader said that Mbappé “found that the Federation had not defended him after his missed penalty (against Switzerland at the Euro, editor’s note) and criticism on the networks”.
“Yes finally I explained to him above all that it was in relation to racism, and NO to the penalty”, replied the player on his Twitter account. “But he considered that there had been no racism…”.
In the JDD, Noël Le Graët returned more broadly to his relationship with Kylian Mbappé and the discussions after the elimination in the round of 16 against Switzerland (3-3, 5 pens to 4), where the Parisian striker n did not convert his shot on goal, the last, precipitating elimination.
“He found that the Federation had not defended him after his missed penalty and the criticism on the networks. We had seen each other for five minutes in my office. + I did not want to say that, on the contrary, you always been nice +”, explained the president of the FFF, adding in particular that the Parisian no longer “wanted to play in the France team – which he obviously did not think”.
An increase in insults on social networks
In September 2021, Noël Le Graët had already been the subject of criticism after declaring that racism in football “does not exist or hardly exists”. A few months before, in July, the Paris prosecutor’s office had announced that it was investigating racist messages towards certain players of the French team after the Euro.
The president of the Executive Council of the territorial community of Martinique Serge Letchimy had notably written on June 30 to the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti to condemn “insulting remarks” towards Mbappé. Among them, a very relayed message which insulted the PSG striker as a “dirty nigger” who “deserves to take a hundred lashes”.
On Saturday, the International Football Federation (Fifa) published a report pointing to the increase in the number of insults suffered by footballers on social networks. According to this study, 38% of them were racist in nature. FIFA also communicated on the development of a “plan to protect teams, players, referees and supporters” against such messages during international competitions.
It includes in particular a “moderation service” which will make it possible to detect messages and make them invisible “for the recipient and his subscribers”.