Former Manchester United and France football star Patrice Evra was today given a criminal conviction for posting homophobic abuse online.
The 41-year-old former Red Devils captain was not present in court on Thursday when he was fined €1,000 (£890) and ordered to pay €2,000 (£1,780) in compensation to two anti-hate campaign groups.
Stop Homophobia and Mousse filed a complaint in March 2019 after Evra posted a video of himself on social media after a match between Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain.
‘Paris, you are queers, you are queers’ said Evra, causing outrage across France and beyond following the Champions League game.
Alleging that his old club was more macho than PSG, Evra added; ‘Here, it’s the men who talk.’
Mousse and Stop Homophobia, supported by the anti-homophobia collective Rouge Direct, (Red Direct) immediately filed a complaint for ‘public insult towards a group of people because of their sexual orientation’.
The investigating judge in the case reclassified the complaint to ‘non-public insult’ and referred the case to the Paris Police Court.
The Judge ruled that Evra, who now lives in Dubai, had ‘expressed himself in a private setting for the making of a video which was later posted on Snapchat without his knowledge.’
“The homophobic remarks of a personality like Patrice Evra fuel hatred and violence against LGBT people, in particular in countries where homosexuality is criminally repressed, like in Senegal, the country from which Patrice Evra hails,” said the complainants’ attorney, Etienne Deshoulieres, in a statement following Thursday’s conviction.
Evra was raised in Paris after moving from Dakar, Senegal’s capital, where she was born.
Evra’s attorney, Jerome Boursican, said that his client was only “aiming [insults] at PSG” and had “not sought to harm the LGBT community.”
The defense attorney said that the day after the offensive film was shown, Evra published an apology video.
In the current professional game, homophobia has grown to be a major problem. All European clubs, including those in the English Premier League, declare they are fighting it to the best of their abilities.