Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Benetton suspend player, federal prosecutor opens Traore race case

(Photo by Federugby/Getty Images)

The racism storm surrounding Benetton Rugby was elevated to a legal matter on Thursday when the Federation of Italian Rugby confirmed that a federal prosecutor had opened an investigation into the Cherif Traore incident, adding that the URC club had suspended an unnamed player.

ADVERTISEMENT

Benetton have been widely criticised in the wake of the racism incident that became public on Wednesday when Test-level prop Traore posted to his Instagram the revelation that he had been gifted a banana during his club’s secret Santa presentation.

Apologies were made to Traore after the club summoned the Benetton squad to a meeting and while the player attempted to draw a line under the controversy when later posting a follow-up message on Instagram, the reaction of the club has been hugely criticised by high-profile players such England vice-captain Ellis Genge who called them out over their lenient reaction.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

URC, the five-nation, 16-team league that Benetton play in, issued a statement on Thursday explaining they wanted a full report from the club on what had happened, but the racism incident took on greater urgency later in the day when the Italian federation confirmed that a legal investigation had been launched and that Benetton had suspended an unnamed player.

A statement read: “The Italian Rugby Federation and Benetton Rugby, in the aftermath of the affair involving some of the members of the club, wish to reiterate their firm condemnation of all forms of racism and discrimination which have not and must not have any place in the within the Italian rugby movement, sport and civil society.

Related

“The FIR informs that the federal prosecutor has launched the investigations necessary to ascertain the facts, as well as the collective and individual responsibilities, to protect the founding values and reputation of the game. Benetton Rugby have simultaneously decided to suspend one of its members as a precaution, for the entire duration of the investigations by the public prosecutor’s office.

“It will be the exclusive competence of the federal justice bodies, based on the results of the investigations, to impose any sporting or administrative sanctions, in total autonomy and without the interference of any kind by bodies external to the FIR justice.

ADVERTISEMENT

“FIR and Benetton Rugby, having also heard the favourable opinion of Zebre Parma, have also agreed to jointly deepen the process of raising awareness and awareness of inclusion issues for their athletes. The Italian Rugby Federation and Benetton Rugby will not release further comments until the conclusion of the investigations by the federal prosecutor.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

307 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Tyrone Green decision has huge bearing on his international future Tyrone Green decision has huge bearing on his international future
Search