France’s sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera on Monday called for “the toughest sanctions” against Mohamed Camara and his club after the Monaco player taped over a badge in support of the LGBTQ community.

Malian star Camara, 24, covered the logo on the front of his playing jersey with white tape in a French Ligue 1 game on Sunday.

He also opted out of a pre-match photograph where the Monaco and Nantes teams stood behind a banner backing the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia, and Transphobia.
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“Such behaviour must be met with the toughest sanctions both for the player but also for his club which allowed him to do it,” Oudea-Castera told French radio station RTL.

The minister judged Camara’s action “unacceptable”.

“I’ve told the Professional Football League (LFP) what I thought about it,” she added.

Monaco coach Adi Hutter was asked about Camara’s stance after the game in which he scored one of the goals in a 4-0 win on the last day of the Ligue 1 season.

“First of all, I would like to say that we, as a club, support the operation organised by the league,” said Hutter in reference to a league-wide initiative.
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“For his part, it was a personal initiative. There will be an internal discussion with him about this situation. I will not comment further.”

For Jeff Puech, co-founder of the Inclusive Sport Foundation, this type of incident “is the exception that proves the rule”.

“There were only two players throughout Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, (Camara) and Nantes’ Egyption forward Mostafa Mohamed who I think didn’t play for ‘diplomatic’ reasons,” Puech pointed out to AFP.

“They are two players too many, but not a single coach, not a single official, refused to sport the logo.

“For example last year four Toulouse players refused, this year none, we carried out a three week workshop at the club, that effort has paid off,” he added.

Puech praised the LFP as the only professional sports body in France “that is doing a lot”.

“I would like all the others to take part in a fundamental movement. But that will come.”
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