French Ligue 1 giants Paris St-Germain (PSG) have been fined 100,000 euros for racially profiling youth players this according to reports from French portal Mediapart.
The website published documents showing signings being identified by their ethnicity and this is said to be against French law to collect personal data revealing an individual's racial or ethnic origins.
The French league (LFP) disciplinary commission, which issued the fine, said PSG did not use the data for discriminatory purposes.
A decision was reached by the LFP after hearing from former officials involved in PSG's recruitment between 2013 and 2018.
Options
Scouts from PSG were allegedly asked, for every player observed, to choose one of four options on an electronic drop-down menu: French, North African, black African or West Indian and in November, the club acknowledged and condemned the existence of the files revealed by Mediapart.
"There is no case of discrimination that can be proved. It is more a case of individual clumsiness and collective negligence," LFP disciplinary commissioner Sebastien Deneux said at a press conference.
PSG previously said the club's general management did not know there was an ethnic registration system in a recruitment department.
And the LFP said that PSG general manager Jean-Claude Blanc had not been sanctioned.
"From what we can see, PSG did not use the information on ethnicity for discriminatory ends," Deneux said.
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