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LeRoy Faces Racial Charges

January 31st, 2008 | By: Inara | 7 Comments »

Ugh. The last thing we need during an already polarized tournament is someone saying something stupid. Especially when it’s the manager of the host country.

Claude LeRoy, Ghana’s resident French genius, is facing charges leveled by the African Confederation of Football (CAF) for racial misconduct. He has 24 hours to answer the charges.

During the Ghana-Morocco game, he apparently asked the general coordinator “the reason why the pitch was not watered was because he was a Muslim like them (referring to the Moroccan team).”

I’m not sure exactly what he meant by that, but it doesn’t sound very nice, and the CAF are rightfully annoyed. If LeRoy is found guilty of violating the disciplinary code, he faces a huge fine and a stadium ban. Read the official comment by the CAF here.

Edit: Assistant Ghana coach Herve Renard has been slapped with a one match ban for using offensive language against the general coordinator of Ghana-Morocco.

How embarrassing for Ghana!

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Comments

By Rami | January 31st, 2008 at 11:54 am

I dont get it? Wouldn’t the person in charge of the pitch watering be from Ghana and not from Morocco? Am I missing something? I’m confused.

Posted from United States

By Inara | January 31st, 2008 at 12:04 pm

Yeah, I was confused as well, so I’m thinking something might have gotten lost in translation, but what was obvious (at least to the general coordinator) was that it was a derogatory comment about Muslims. I’m still waiting to see what LeRoy says.

Posted from United States

By Inara | January 31st, 2008 at 12:07 pm

Here is the official statement from the CAF website:

http://www.cafonline.com/?lng=1&module=media&ANC=&TNews=1&idrub=96234&cmpt=0&idnews=82767

So from what I understand, I think LeRoy was complaining the pitch might have been dry and was upset that it wasn’t watered properly, so he said the reason it wasn’t was because the coordinator was a Muslim like the Moroccan team. A fasting/Ramadan comment?

The whole thing doesn’t make sense actually.

Posted from United States

By Brad | January 31st, 2008 at 12:17 pm

But even if the person watering the pitch was from Ghana they could still be Muslim. So Leroy could have made the derogatory remark to a Ghanaian Muslim implying they were in cahoots with the Moroccan team because they were of the same religious belief system.

Posted from Canada

By Inara | January 31st, 2008 at 12:49 pm

That could be it too. Regardless of what he meant though, it’s just not appropriate for the manager of a national team to say stuff like that.

Posted from United States

By Ryan | February 1st, 2008 at 4:34 pm

You must stop this soccer politics. Leroy hasn’t said anything and as far as I am concerned, there is no such a thing that Leroy made any racial comment. Even if he did what has it got to do with Ghana? After all he is a french man who is being paid for his service for the team. If that happened too, you must not let that hunt you so much because French are treating north africans in France like shit already.

The truth is he hasn’t said any racial comment about the Morrocans and there is no report on the CAF website concerning this issue.STOP THIS SOCCER POLITICAL NONSENSE.

Posted from Canada

By Inara | February 1st, 2008 at 5:20 pm

Ryan, if you look at the link posted, you’ll see that the CAF are the ones leveling the charges, specifically for racial misconduct. As a Ghana supporter, I hope it’s not true, but if it is, it should be punished.

Posted from United States

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