Idrissa Gueye traveled south to Montpellier along with his Paris St.-Germain teammates for the staff’s league sport on Saturday however wound up watching it from the stands. Gueye was not injured, his coach mentioned after P.S.G.’s victory: He “needed to go away the staff for private causes.”
These private causes, a staff supply confirmed Monday, have been that Gueye had refused to affix his teammates in carrying a particular jersey that includes rainbow-colored numbers created to spotlight discrimination earlier than Tuesday’s international occasions marking the Worldwide Day In opposition to 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 experiences, which have been first to report the explanation for Gueye’s lacking the sport on Saturday, rapidly famous that he had additionally 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, mentioned 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, referred to as on the French league, P.S.G. and Gueye to “clarify themselves” and recommended Gueye ought 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 staff is owned by the Qatari state by means of its sovereign wealth fund, and Qatar itself has come below scrutiny amid considerations from the homosexual neighborhood about their security when the World Cup takes place within the Gulf nation later this yr. Homosexuality is towards the regulation in Qatar, as it’s in different nations within the Gulf, however World Cup organizers have insisted that every one followers could be welcome throughout the match.
Similar-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 sport.
The membership’s senior officers are at the moment in Qatar, based on a staff consultant, and it’s unclear what measures, if any, can 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 staff 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 up to now 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 response to the staff supply with information of P.S.G.’s inner conversations over the weekend, membership officers had advised Gueye that the staff 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, based on an individual with information of the incident.
