The sanction did not take long. The spectator who made monkey cries at the end of the National (third French football division) match between Nancy and Red Star on Wednesday October 11 was banned from the stadium for five years, the Lorraine club announced on Friday. He was identified thanks to surveillance cameras at the Marcel-Picot stadium, where AS Nancy Lorraine (ASNL) plays.
“We identified the author, he handed himself in to the police,” said Nabil El Yaagoubi, deputy director general of ASNL. “We are going to ban him from the stadium for five years thanks to the Larrivé law. » The latter, adopted in 2016, allows clubs to refuse the sale of tickets to certain spectators, even if they are not yet banned from the stadium.
“We have only identified one person, we have the images. There is only one individual who was arrested. We made calls for witnesses, we have not received any feedback that tells us otherwise. The Red Star players also identified an individual who was making gestures,” continued Nabil El Yaagoubi.
After the meeting, the Red Star coach, Habib Beye, protested about the behavior in the stands at the microphone of Canal. “When I have three of my players come up to me and say, ‘Coach, they’re miming monkey noises.’ (…) For me this is unacceptable. We let things like this happen in stadiums. We have in fact trivialized all these situations,” denounced the former defender, while the match had just ended in a draw (1-1). The incident occurred after the match, when the Red Star players went to greet their supporters.
The Nancy public prosecutor, François Capin-Dulhoste, indicated to AFP on Thursday that an investigation was underway into these facts, entrusted to departmental security. The disciplinary committee of the French Football Federation will also open a procedure on this matter, the French Football Federation announced the same day. On Friday, the Nancy club also announced that it had filed a complaint against the spectator who made the monkey cries.