The Swiss federation does not let sprinter Pascal Mancini participate in the MS

Pascal Mancini is unaware of any error. (Image: Jean-Christophe Bott / Keystone)

Tuesday night, the Swiss Athletics Federation Swiss Athletics still managed to make a decision. First it was discouraged Wednesday, important people are on vacation, so everything should go fast: The Association does not let Pascal Mancini participate in the European Championships, which take place in early August in Berlin.

Swiss Athletic responds to a search of the NZZ. The association had long been aware of Mancini's right-wing nationalism, but had reached an agreement with him that he could only politically express himself as a private person, but not as a private person. Swiss athlete. The sprinter did not keep that.

Mancini had also spread his ideas on his official Facebook page of the athlete. He has posted quotes from a certain Leon D twice in the last six months: Leon Degrelle, SS officer and prominent neo-Nazi after World War II. It was a violation of the agreement with the federation, the consequence of which. Now Swiss Athletics is depriving him of the license. A disciplinary procedure is open against him

. Against journalists

Mancini, 29, commented on the allegations on Tuesday afternoon. Already there he guessed that it would not be good for him. He said, "The probability of my exclusion is great." He felt a conspiracy: "At every major event, there are people who have been lobbying the Association for years. This time they went through the media. People I do not like. But I do not know who they are. "The sprinter himself offered the NZZ Tuesday to the spokesperson of the association an interview by phone." I do not think I made a mistake, "said Mancini.

Mancini feels badly understood.Mostly reporters.He already wrote it Tuesday night on Facebook; the association had already told him that it should not start in the season.For the individual discipline of more Mancini was still nominated at the time but the association had already in the selection concerns that Mancini could disrupt the team's structure of the season. me, running with blacks in the squadron is not a problem. "

According to Mancini, the misunderstanding began with the monkey video taken on the" Sunday look "on the weekend. Mancini had posted after the World Cup final, it can be understood as a racist denigration of the team's France. "The video of the monkey concerned the people who made chaos on the Champs-Elysées after the final of the World Cup. That bothered me, so the monkey video. It has nothing to do with racism. I do not know why reporters are the only ones who do not understand this, "said Mancini, on his private Facebook site, Mancini collects money, it could be supported financially, because the media wanted to destroy his career

There, in the private calendar of Mancini, we find even more videos of speakers and right-wing nationalist portals.Why does it show them? Mancini said: "J & # Write down what I think, and I know that some people see this critically, which is why I sometimes publish things to provoke a little. "

Deleted Playlist

But his private profile on Facebook was not the reason for the EM exclusion. Mancini had crossed a line by posting neo-Nazi quotes Degrelle on his page of Athlete fans

"The Leon Degrelle's quotes were not political. I just liked the quotes. I did not know that he was a SS and neo-Nazi leader, "said Mancini, who also has an explanation for his Youtube playlist of songs, including songs entitled" Auschwitz with you "and" our race is our religion "." I have a lot of videos on Youtube, "said Mancini," I found the videos in the playlist fun because they're so extreme. This is not serious. It's stupid songs. On Tuesday morning, the reading list was suddenly removed. According to Mancini, because he's read about it in the media. The song "Our race is our religion" is still in another playlist on Mancini's profile.

Mancini announced in the afternoon that he would accept the verdict no matter how the case came out for him. It's a shame, because it's about freedom of expression, said Mancini: "I say what I think, even publicly, if I were racist, I would say so. "