Monaco general manager Thiago Scuro has apologised after Mohamed Camara covered up an anti-homophobia badge on his shirt.
During Ligue 1's final round of fixtures, clubs put an anti-homophobia logo on the front of their shirts and players posed in front of a banner backing the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia, and Transphobia.
Camara though stuck two pieces of white tape across the logo, which was on the chest of his shirt. He also did not take part in the photo in front of the banner, before going on to score a penalty in a 4-0 win over Nantes.
His actions were slammed by French sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera, who demanded the strongest possible actions be taken against both Camara and Monaco.
“It is unacceptable behaviour,” Oudea-Castera told French radio station RTL on Monday. “I had the chance to tell the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) 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.”
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The Disciplinary Commission of the LFP has now summoned Camara for its next session which will be held next Thursday because of his “behavior”.
Scuro has now rushed to apologise on behalf of the club and claimed Camara had covered the anti-homophobia badge due to religious reasons. Camara has though worn shorts bearing the branding of a betting company all season.
"As an organisation, we support the league. I called the CEO of the LFP, Arnaud Rouger, to apologise yesterday morning. Mo has his religious reasons to do what he did. As you can imagine, it is a very sensitive topic to discuss as we have to respect religion," Scuro said.
French sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera demanded the strongest possible sanctions be taken against Camara (BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images)"We, as a club, are very sad about this episode. We hope to show this and show that we don’t support this. We will manage it internally. What happened this year will not happen again. This episode should not scratch the club’s reputation.
"It doesn’t represent who we are, as AS Monaco. Not afraid of punishment. It could happen but we hope not. It doesn’t feel fair to punish the whole organisation but I respect the opinions.
"The situation doesn’t represent who we are, as AS Monaco, it’s an individual decision that we are managing. We are not afraid of punishment. It could happen but we hope not. It doesn’t feel fair to punish the whole organisation but I respect all the opinions."
Camara hails from Mali, where LGBT people face widespread discrimination among the broader population. The country's consititution has also specifically outlawed same-sex marriage since 2023.
LGBT+ campaign group PanamPride Football Club, who formerly partnered with Ligue 1 for their anti-homophobia messaging, condemned Camara and lamented the lack of action from the authorities.
They said in a statement: "Forty-eight hours after this carefully considered affront to all victims of homophobic violence, we are still awaiting an apology from the player and a reaction from the LFP. Sanction, although requested by Oudea-Castera, there will be none."
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