Speaking at a press conference today after Lille’s match vs St Étienne, manager Christophe Galtier was asked about the new LFP policy of pausing matches when homophobic chants are heard from the stands.

“There is no homophobia in football or racism, we are far from all of that. When you look at the contents of a dressing room, you can see there is no place for racism or homophobia. Aside from that, there is what happens in the stands. And we are in the process of associating the main actors (presumably players) with a homophobia problem, which is false. What is going on in the stands, is sadly the reality of society. Should you intervene in a radical way, by stopping a match and deducting points? I do not think so. How can you penalise players or different staffs, who are neither racists nor homophobes, because there is 1 person, 10 people or 100 people out of 40,000 who are going to have racist or homophobic reactions? I am against the idea that you should be sanctioned on the footballing result side. There are maybe other types of sanctions.”

“If we could all move on from this (homophobic chanting), that would be better. When you go with your little children to the stadium and they look at you and say: “Dad, what are they saying?” You respond by saying nothing, don’t listen… If this type of chant could be avoided, find a way of stopping it, that would be good.”

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