It is illegal in France to record personal data on a person’s race or ethnic background.
While the club admits scouts were using the tactic, PSG claims senior officials had no knowledge the system was being used. The club says an internal investigation into the matter was launched in October. The team says a former employee and team of scouts outside of Paris acted on their own in creating the system.
Mediapart reports former PSG domestic recruitment chief Marc Westerloppe told staffers in 2014 there were “too many West Indians and Africans in Paris.” He allegedly said the team needed more “balance” and expressed frustration over the lack on non-black players in region’s outside of France’s capital.
PSG’s director general Jean-Claude Blanc tells the New York Times the club elected not to fire Westerloppe after meeting with him. Blanc says Westerloppe’s response did cause turmoil in the front office.
The scandal is a black eye for French soccer, which just celebrated a successful World Cup championship this spring. The national team was filled with stars of African descent who shined on the sport’s biggest stage. Meanwhile, PSG currently fields two of soccer’s brightest young players in Brazil’s Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior and France’s World Cup phenom Kylian Mbappe. Neymar is biracial and Mbappe is black.
The soccer federation’s ethical council will be tasked with looking into the allegations. It will be empowered to hand the case over to the disciplinary commission once the council’s finished with its probe. The League of Human Rights also filed a discrimination lawsuit against PSG. It vows to “punish the culprits” responsible for the practices.
