There were unsavoury scenes in France during Wednesday night's game between Nice and Marseille when the match was temporarily stopped due to a homophobic banner.
Referee Clement Turpin led the players off the pitch after 27 minutes when he saw the banner, with the LFP (Ligue de Football Professionnel) this season encouraging referees to stop games if there is discrimination in the stands.
According to journalist Tom Williams there were actually two banners which were deemed offensive.
Posting on his personal Twitter Williams said: "Seems there were two offending banners. One used a play on the word ‘pédale’, which means ‘pedal’ (a reference to Nice’s new owners, INEOS), but is also a pejorative name for a gay person. Second one was a message to LFP that said: “FULL STANDS FOR A MORE GAY STADIUM.”
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Britain's richest man, completed a £91million takeover of Nice on Tuesday, but it appears the club's supporters chose to praise the news in a far from acceptable manner.
After the teams were led into the dressing room they later re-emerged, and Marseille, who are managed by ex-Chelsea and Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas, went on to win 2-1 against the Patrick Vieira-managed Nice.
This is, sadly, not the first time this season a match in France has been affected by homophobia, with a Ligue 2 match between Nancy and Le Mans earlier this month also being briefly stopped due to homophobic chanting from fans.
After Nice's defeat, however, their player Wylan Cyprien said he disagreed with the decision to take the players off.
Speaking to Canal Plus he said: “We’re not going to stop the game each time some morons do something. I’m against all forms of discrimination, [whether it’s] homophobia or racism, but you shouldn’t stop the match for so little. It’s ridiculous.”
