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Melvyn Jaminet suspended by France after video clip circulated

Capture d’écran de la vidéo de Melvyn Jaminet

On Sunday evening, the French Rugby Federation decided to suspend Melvyn Jaminet from the France squad for alleged racist comments.

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The issue came to light in the early evening of 7 July when a video of the international full-back making racist comments was posted on the player’s official Instagram account. The video has since been deleted, but continues to circulate widely on social media.

It shows the RC Toulon full-back filming himself on a street at night, speaking to the camera in an unstructured manner, as if under the influence of alcohol: “My Daronne (my mother, editor’s note) asks me if I’ve been partying… (he breathes out) I swear, the first Arab I see on the street… I will headbutt him… I will headbutt him… I say: I will headbutt him… Headbutt, I will…”

No information has been released as to when or where the video was posted. However, it appears that the video was posted in reels when the player was cold. In the following excerpt, he says: “Oulala, I’m freezing… I’m freezing…”.

But the French team are on tour in Argentina, where it’s winter. At the end of the video, he pretends to vomit.

Complaints from FFR and RCT

However, the French Rugby Federation (FFR) said it would “check the facts before making an official statement”.

That statement was not long in coming, with a press release issued at 9.35pm on Sunday night condemning the comments.

“The French Rugby Federation (FFR) strongly condemns the comments made by Melvyn Jaminet in a recent video posted on social media. Such comments are totally unacceptable and contrary to the fundamental values of our sport,” it said.

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“As a result, Melvyn Jaminet has been suspended with immediate effect and is leaving the French squad currently in Argentina.

“An internal investigation is underway to shed full light on these extremely serious comments and to take the appropriate action.

“The FFR reaffirms its unwavering commitment to diversity, inclusion and laïcité. Rugby is a sport that brings people together and unites them, and we have a duty to promote these core values. Discriminatory behaviour of any kind has no place in French rugby”.

At the same time, RC Toulon, the club where Jaminet had signed in 2023, also condemned the comments on X: “Following the video posted on social media involving Melvyn Jaminet, RCT condemns and distances itself from the comments made. An internal investigation has been launched and the club will communicate more widely once this is complete”.

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Later that evening, the player apologised in a story posted on his Instagram account: “I am deeply ashamed of my words,” he wrote. “I would like to apologise to everyone. I understand that this may have hurt and offended many people and I want to make it clear that these comments in no way reflect my values or those of the French rugby team.

“Racism, in all its forms, is unacceptable and goes against everything I believe in.

“I understand the FFR’s sanction and I am at their disposal to shed light on this matter. Melvyn.”

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Comments

38 Comments
J
Jon 87 days ago

Haha he has a bit of a boozing problem aye and bloody mum is on his case from thousands of miles away! Poor Arabs, topic of the day, and very straight laced people it seems!

Good mums though ❤️!?

T
Tom 89 days ago

Freedom of speech aside, he is an employee of an organisation which is trying to promote inclusion and he’s publicly espousing hate speech, that is gross misconduct.

m
monty 89 days ago

When will people realize alcohol is not your friend

J
Joseph 89 days ago

So Mohammed Haouas can beat the crap out of his wife in public, repeatedly rob shops, brawl in a bakery and be jailed, but it’s still OK for him to play for Biarritz and now Montpellier.

But Jaminet, who's white, should be banned for life for having made a silly little video of himself which hurt NOBODY, other than the sensibilities of a couple of woke snowflakes.

The hell with that. They're not a protected species.

B
Bret 90 days ago

Racism needs to be absolutely punished and in the harshest and swiftest way possible. He should lose his job, his contract should be terminated and he should be banned from all forms of rugby for life.

J
John 90 days ago

Never drink on an empty head!

B
Barry 90 days ago

Absolute fool. Brain damage levels of stupid.

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JW 2 hours ago
Nigel Owens' verdict on the 20-minute red card trial

Alright, to his credit he did have something to say after that..

“As far as the 20-minute red card idea is concerned, I’m not a fan. As Mathieu has said, I don’t believe it will really solve any of the problems that we have in the game at the moment.

So we might as well start here, which I'm assume was the topic he started with as well. The only reason 20min rec cards were brought in was to make the game fairer, a problem highlighted by their recent frequency.


A player, and team, should receive the same punishment for a particular foul, no matter what. Red cards (as they were) don't achieve that as the punishment is purely dependent and what stage of the game it is (if you think a punishment has an effect on the frequency of offenses, ask yourself if you've noticed more people committing red card offences towards the ends of game). So a team who receives a red card in the first minute of the game, is overly punished and that is obviously going to be the case for the viewers as well. That is the problem a fixed length red card 'solves'.


Now, onto the other topics he raises..

“They should not be seen as red card offences in the first place – so do we need to change the laws instead?

They're not!!!! They are now seen as 20min red card offences. Here at least, you could still be given a straight red no replacement card on the field for 'thuggery'. This is the law change you're asking for!

Too often, players are still not making the effort to go lower.

Going lower is the cause of these problems. There is nothing wrong with upright tackles, they are safe. Shoulder charging and swinging arms are long out of the game Nigel!

if you have been sent off, you have done something reckless that has put another player at great risk

No, not necessarily. But in the few cases where they were, that punishment is for the player. Not the team. You can be sent off for receiving a 'team' yellow, this is a case were the rule should directly be rectified however. It's outside this discussion.

A red card means you deserve to be off the pitch, so I don’t see why there should be a middle ground.

There is still a lot of careless, reckless conduct out there, so I don’t know if introducing these new cards has made much of a difference anyway.”

I don't recall any careless or reckless behaviour, not at least in TRC, what is he referring to? What we did just see was the game last week be saved by the 20min RC rule. We had what Nigel is describing as an accidental head collision which saw Argentina receive a read card (must have been very close to yellow). Normally that would have destroyed the game (and it did for that period), but by returning to 15 players it was still able to be a contest, which Opta suggests would normally have had just a 7 point gap between the teams. This is why there is a middle ground (what you have been saying you want!!).

do we need to change the laws instead?

Back to his poorly made point. I would suggest bigger off field penalties that are far more involved that a 'tackling' school, and obviously not just for the player, the whole team, especially the coachs, needed to be doing the penance. A definite review to team based yellow cards and how infringement sequences can be better handled is required as well.

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