(Reuters) – French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera called on Monday for “the strongest sanctions” against AS Monaco’s Mohamed Camara and his Ligue 1 club after the badge on the midfielder’s shirt supporting the LGBTQ community was covered up.
The 24-year-old Camara’s badge was covered with white tape ahead of Monaco’s last league match of the season on Sunday in which he netted a penalty in their 4-0 home win against Nantes.
“Yes, absolutely. It is unacceptable behaviour,” Oudea-Castera told French radio station RTL when asked about the possibility of sanctioning the Mali international and his club.
“I had the chance to tell the Ligue de Football Professionnel what I thought about it last night and I think, such behaviour must be subject to the strongest sanctions against the player and the club which allowed it to happen.”
After the match, Monaco coach Adi Hutter was questioned about Camara’s actions.
“First of all, I would like to say that we, as a club, support the operation organised by the league,” he said referring to the initiative to support the LGBTQ community.
“For his part, it was a personal initiative. There will be an internal discussion with him about this situation. I will not comment further.”
Monaco finished second in Ligue 1 this season behind Paris St Germain to qualify for the Champions League group stage.
(Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk and Zhifan Liu in Paris; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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