Reims delays kick-off in Monaco, in the face of Russian “acts of war”
“Despite all the respect I have for the Monaco club and for its leaders, we had to symbolically show that we were totally in disagreement with the acts of war carried out by Russia there”explained Jean-Pierre Caillot at the microphone of Prime Video before the meeting.
Scheduled for 1:00 p.m., the kick-off was at 1:05 p.m.: for a few minutes, the Monegasque players waited in the hallway leading to the lawn, while the Rémois remained in the locker room.
“We have in our women’s team a Ukrainian player who has all her family there, we have within the club people who have family in Ukraine. If by symbolic actions we manage to find calm and that this war stop, we’re going to put our little pebble in the building”, justified Mr. Caillot.
“We stay in sport”
AS Monaco is managed by the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, president and owner, his compatriot Oleg Petrov, occupying for his part the position of vice-president and general manager.
Mr. Rybolovlev made his fortune in the Russian group Uralkali, a world giant in potassium fertilizers, of which he owned 65% until 2010.
Reims a “communicated” son action “at the last moment” to his opponent of the day, “but above all we don’t want to make them uncomfortable”, explained Mr. Caillot.
“I have a lot of respect for Oleg Petrov. It’s politics, we stay in sport but we want to show strong and symbolic action at club level”.