Stop matches if fans spoil anthem

MATCHES where the national anthem is jeered should be cancelled immediately, the government has announced.

Fans whistled over the top of La Marseillaise during a friendly match between France and Tunisia debate causing outrage among MPs.

While the prime minister and president have both indicated they would like to see matches stopped, UEFA spokesman William Gaillard said it could cause problems.

"You really need to look at the practicalities," he said. "With 80,000 people to evacuate that can pose problems."

The national secretary of the Socialist Party has called for the resignation of sports minister Bernard Laporte after he suggested that France should only play matched against North African teams in front of "decent fans" either elsewhere in the country or abroad.

Razzy Hammadi said: "What exactly are 'decent fans'? This proposal has racist and xenophobic connotations for a minister of the Republic."

Laporte had suggested moving such matches away from the Stade de France in Seine-Saint-Denis to other parts of France.

"The 30,000 Tunisians who are from the Paris estates, they will not go if the match is at Carcassonne or if it's at Biarritz, they will not see the match. Voilà, he will have decent fans," he said.

Several other MPs including those in Laporte's own party have criticised his comments.

Minister for Health and Sport Roselyne Bachelot said France should cease to play against countries where such incidents had occurred.

La Marseillaise has been whistled during home matches against Morocco in November 2007 and Algeria in Octobre 2001.

In 2002 when fans began whistling during a French Cup match between Lorient and Bastia at the Stade de France, the then President Jacques Chirac walked out of the stadium.

Interior Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie has demanded that the local prefect open an investigation into the incident.

The secretary of state for urbanism Fadela Amara said examples should be made out of those who had jeered during the performance. Organisers had specifically asked French-Tunisian singer Lââm to sing the anthem.

In a poll for Le Parisien/Aujourd'hui en France, eight out of ten French said they were shocked by the behaviour of fans.

* A strike by footballers will not take place. Players in Leagues 1 and 2 had threatened to walk out on October 24-26. The players had been at odds with administrative reforms.

Photo:Julien Haler