Ligue de Football Professionel, the governing body of professional soccer in the nations of France and Monaco, held an anti-homophobia initiative on Sunday in support of the LGBTQ community. But one player outright refused to participate in the initiative, shunning the show of support to the LGBTQ community in multiple ways.
As Outsports points out, Monaco midfielder Mohamed Camara refused to participate in the anti-homophobia initiative as he skipped a group photo in front of the campaign’s logo and used pieces of tape to cover up the two logos supporting the LGBTQ community.
“Camara, a 24-year-old Mali international, showed total disregard for this anti-discrimination drive even before kick-off at the Stade Louis II when he refused to stand with players from both teams behind the campaign logo for a pre-match photo,” Jon Holmes wrote for Outsports.
“Fans then quickly spotted that the former Red Bull Salzburg star was playing with black tape over the rainbow LFP logo on his sleeve, and white tape over the campaign logo on the front of his jersey.”
Obviously, this was an intentional refusal to support the LGBTQ community, and it led to a lot of criticism on social media as a result.
“He ostensibly sends a message of homophobia,” the group Rouge Direct posted on X, in a translation from French to English. “Are you interested in sanctioning these behaviors once in a while?”
“After this 2024 campaign, everything is clearer: it is not the rainbow flocking that posed the problem but rather the homophobia of too many players, to whom everything is allowed to pass! What a shame ! Can we imagine similar behavior with the anti-racism badge?!?” inclusive soccer club PaNamPride said in a translated post on X.
“We can only regret this behavior and that his club and the referee let him do that, hide the logo and color the LFP logo. This is homophobia… why let it happen? Monaco? Ashamed,” Yoann Lemaire, a former amateur footballer who came out as gay in 2004 wrote in a post that has been translated on X.
It’s clear that this was not a popular decision from Camara.
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