Idrissa Gueye traveled south to Montpellier along with his Paris St.-Germain teammates for the group’s league recreation on Saturday however wound up watching it from the stands. Gueye was not injured, his coach stated after P.S.G.’s victory: He “needed to go away the group for private causes.”
These private causes, a group supply confirmed Monday, have been that Gueye had refused to hitch his teammates in carrying a particular jersey that includes rainbow-colored numbers created to focus on discrimination earlier than Tuesday’s world occasions marking the Worldwide Day Towards Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. The jerseys have been a part of a coordinated leaguewide effort.
Gueye has not commented on his absence, however French information media studies, which have been first to report the rationale for Gueye’s lacking the sport on Saturday, shortly famous that he had additionally missed the identical awareness-raising fixture final season. Final season’s absence was attributed to a abdomen subject, however this 12 months P.S.G.’s coach, Mauricio Pochettino, stated Gueye didn’t have any well being points.
Activist teams have been fast to denounce Gueye’s resolution to say no to put on the jersey. Rouge Direct, a gaggle that fights homophobia in sports activities, known as on the French league, P.S.G. and Gueye to “clarify themselves” and advised Gueye needs to be punished for his actions.
For P.S.G. the difficulty of assist for homosexual rights and anti-homophobia efforts is a very delicate one. The group is owned by the Qatari state by its sovereign wealth fund, and Qatar itself has come below scrutiny amid issues from the homosexual group about their security when the World Cup takes place within the Gulf nation later this 12 months. Homosexuality is towards the legislation in Qatar, as it’s in different international locations within the Gulf, however World Cup organizers have insisted that every one followers can be welcome in the course of the event.
Identical-sex acts are additionally unlawful in Gueye’s native Senegal, the place ultraconservative teams have burned rainbow flags throughout public protests towards homosexuality.
P.S.G. has not commented on Gueye past the feedback made by Pochettino after Sunday’s recreation.
The membership’s senior officers are presently in Qatar, in response to a group consultant, and it’s unclear what measures, if any, shall be taken towards Gueye, whose contract with P.S.G. expires on the finish of subsequent month.
P.S.G. is by far the most important group in France and attracts outsize curiosity, at residence and overseas, due to its star-studded roster, which this 12 months produced the membership’s eighth French championship previously 10 years. On Saturday at Montpellier, two of its star forwards — Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi — each scored objectives, serving to to focus on the specifically commissioned jersey they wore on social media and past.
In response to the group supply with information of P.S.G.’s inside conversations over the weekend, membership officers had advised Gueye that the group was dedicated to the marketing campaign and that he had no choice however put on the identical jersey as the remainder of his teammates if he needed to play. When Gueye determined he wouldn’t, he was despatched to the stands for the sport, in response to an individual with information of the incident.
