The player Youcef Atal, targeted by a preliminary investigation for “apology of terrorism” after a publication linked to the conflict between Israel and Hamas and suspended by his club Nice, was suspended on Wednesday for seven matches by the LFP disciplinary committee . The Algerian international quickly deleted the post and apologized, but his club decided on October 18 to suspend him until further notice. The National Ethics Council of the FFF had referred the matter to the League’s disciplinary committee.
The commission specifies that the sanction “takes effect from Tuesday October 31, 2023 at 12:00 a.m.”. Technically, the player is therefore not suspended by the LFP for the Clermont-Nice match in Ligue 1 on Friday evening (9:00 p.m.) but he remains suspended by his club. Contacted by AFP, OGC Nice indicated that it did not want to comment immediately. The 27-year-old quickly deleted his publication and apologized, but the club explained that it had chosen to “immediately take” sanctions, “prior to” those that could be taken by sporting or legal authorities, “taking into account the nature of the shared publication and its seriousness.
Since October 14, reactions have multiplied to denounce the sharing, on the footballer’s Instagram account, of a video of a preacher making, according to these accusers, anti-Semitic remarks calling for violence. This publication having been deleted by the player, AFP was not able to independently verify its exact content. In a video that the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif) has kept, the preacher is moved by the fate of civilians in Gaza and calls for “a black day for the Jews” and that they cannot “ raise their flag in Gaza.
The Nice prosecutor announced on October 16 the opening of an investigation for “apology of terrorism” and “provocation to hatred or violence on the basis of a specific religion”. Since the start of the war, Israeli strikes have killed 6,546 people – including 2,704 children – and injured 17,439 in Gaza, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry. More than 200 hostages were kidnapped in Israel by Hamas, including nine French people. According to Israeli authorities, the Hamas attack has killed more than 1,400 people in Israel since October 7, the majority of them civilians.
