Paris Saint-Germain Investigating Racial Profiling Claim

[Dave]

Paris Saint-Germain have opened an investigation into a claim that club scouts recorded young players' 'origins' in order to limit the number of black players at their academy.

According to a report by French website Mediapart, this racial profiling took place between 2013 and spring of this year.

Based on leaked documents, the report says PSG's former chief scout in France, Marc Westerloppe, told his colleagues that "there is a problem with the direction of this club...there are too many West Indians and Africans in Paris".

Scouts for the reigning French champions and current league leaders, the report claims, were asked to choose one of four options for every player they watched on an electronic form: French, North African, black African or West Indian.

According to Mediapart, this system prompted an internal investigation in 2014 when one scout, Serge Fournier, described Yann Gboho, a French teenager who was born in the Ivory Coast and now plays for Rennes, as 'West Indian' because PSG "didn't want us to recruit players born in Africa, because you are never sure of their date of birth".

Fournier also told the website that the drop-down menu on the electronic form "should have said white instead of French", as all the players the national scouts recommended were French.

A spokesman for PSG, however, has told Press Association Sport that the club started a new investigation into these claims three weeks ago but disputed the suggestion that recording players' racial backgrounds was still happening this year.

"We are talking about one recruiting unit with a manager who put that in place from 2013 until 2017, without our knowledge," he said, before adding "all these people have left" the club.

Westerloppe now has a youth development role at Rennes, where Gboho plays and where PSG's former sports director Olivier Letang is now president.

Supporters of PSG have reacted angrily to the Mediapart report on social media, pointing out that PSG's youth teams are predominately black, but the case does have parallels with another Mediapart story in 2011, when it revealed an
apparent plan by the French Football Federation to limit the number of black and North African players in its youth system.

That story almost cost former Manchester United defender Laurent Blanc his job as France manager, although he would quit a year later after a disappointing Euro 2012 campaign.

Claims of racism within their scouting system have come during a tough week for PSG, as the Qatari-owned club has also been accused of trying to cheat European football's Financial Fair Play rules by artificially inflating sponsorship deals - allegations it has strongly denied.

[Dave]

The French Football Federation says its ethical council will look into PSG's recruitment policy after club scouts allegedly profiled the ethnic origins of potential young recruits.

The federation says the council will have the right to ask the French league disciplinary commission to step in when its investigation is over.

PSG acknowledged that forms with "illegal content were used between 2013 and 2018", but they declined responsibility for implementing the policy.

Mediapart reported on Thursday that PSG's non-Paris-based scouts listed the ethnic origins of possible recruits.

Mediapart and French TV program Envoye Special claimed a young black player was overlooked by PSG because of his colour.

Following an investigation based on the 'Football Leaks' documents, Mediapart alleged 17-year-old midfielder Yann Gboho, who plays for France U18s, was disregarded by PSG when he was 13, and the club management decided to cover up "those implicated in the scandal".

Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu expressed her "dismay" at the revelations while Nathalie Boy de la Tour, the president of the French soccer league, said "such practices are unacceptable".

[Dave]

Ermmm..... Wow?

Paris Saint-Germain says it has found no evidence of discrimination following an internal investigation that the club's scouts illegally profiled the ethnic origins of potential young recruits.

French website Mediapart had claimed racial profiling took place at the club between 2013 and spring of this year in order to limit the number of black players at PSG's academy..

Following a meeting involving PSG officials and sports minister Roxana Maracineanu on Thursday, the French club said the investigation, based on interviews of employees in charge of recruitment, had established "there is no proven case of discrimination."

Last week, the French Human Rights League filed a discrimination lawsuit against the club, and the French Football Federation asked its ethics council to investigate the case.

PSG has admitted that forms with illegal content were used between 2013-17 but declined responsibility for implementing the policy after Mediapart reported that up until this year, scouts were asked by PSG to mention the origin of possible recruits according to ethnic categories.

"None of these forms has ever been reported to the general management," PSG said. "No change in the characteristics of young players recruited was observed."

French law prohibits the collection of personal data that shows the racial or ethnic origins of individuals.

[Stan]

PSG are rotten and corrupt to the core, both financially and morally.

[SirBalon]

The stuff Paris Saint-Germain get away with is so shocking that it verges the on obtaining polar opposite reactions in terms of being hilarious.

So they have official recruitment forms drawn up that have been written up in such a manner that they break Fench employment laws via profiling (they actually break EU laws too) and then just say that they knew nothing about it and that's that.  The same way they've gotten away with every other law they've broken in recent years... They just say they knew nothing about it. 

[Dan+]

Disgraceful what they've been doing, and likewise that they've gotten away with it.

But I do feel uneasy about the fact England have specifically started hiring BAME coaches - it's in my eyes a very similar concept to this but seemingly perceived totally differently.

[Spike]

White is right.