Idrissa Gueye traveled south to Montpellier together 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 depart the group for private causes.”
These private causes, a group supply confirmed Monday, have been that Gueye had refused to hitch his teammates in sporting a particular jersey that includes rainbow-colored numbers created to spotlight discrimination earlier than Tuesday’s international occasions marking the International Day In opposition to Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. The jersey have been a part of a coordinated leaguewide effort.
Gueye has not commented on his absence, however French information media experiences, which have been first to report the rationale for Gueye’s lacking the sport on Saturday, shortly famous that he had also missed the identical awareness-raising fixture final season. Final season’s absence was attributed to a abdomen challenge, however this yr 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 determination to say no to put on the jersey. Rouge Direct, a bunch that fights homophobia in sports activities, known as on the French league, P.S.G. and Gueye to “clarify themselves” and urged Gueye needs to be punished for his actions.
For P.S.G. the difficulty of help for homosexual rights and ant-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 beneath scrutiny amid issues from the homosexual neighborhood about their security when the World Cup takes place within the Gulf nation later this yr. Homosexuality is towards the legislation in Qatar, as it’s in different international locations within the Gulf, however World Cup organizers have insisted that each one followers can be welcome throughout the match.
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 keeping with a group consultant, and it’s unclear what measures, if any, will probably be taken towards Gueye, whose contract with P.S.G. expires on the finish of subsequent month.
P.S.G. is by far the largest group in France and attracts outsize curiosity, at residence and overseas, due to its star-studded roster, which this yr 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 targets, serving to to spotlight the specifically commissioned jersey they wore on social media and past.
In line with the group supply with data of P.S.G.’s inside conversations over the weekend, membership officers had informed Gueye that the group was dedicated to the marketing campaign and that he had no possibility however put on the identical jersey as the remainder of his teammates if he wished to play. When Gueye determined he wouldn’t, he was despatched to the stands for the sport, in keeping with an individual with data with the incident.
