{"id":298213,"date":"2025-11-21T00:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T00:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/298213\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T00:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T00:47:11","slug":"mary-fowlers-racism-allegation-denied-by-french-football-club-montpellier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/298213\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary Fowler’s racism allegation denied by French football club Montpellier"},"content":{"rendered":"

French football club Montpellier has denied racism allegations made by Matildas forward Mary Fowler, who says a teammate gave her bananas as a departing gift in 2022.<\/p>\n

Montpellier released a statement saying it discovered “with astonishment a number of accusations” made by Fowler in her memoir, Bloom.<\/p>\n

The club said there was no evidence to support Fowler’s claims, and it was considering taking legal action.<\/p>\n

Fowler shares racism, depression battle <\/a><\/p>\n

Socceroos star Mary Fowler has shared her experiences of depression and self-harm, as well as racism from her teammates, that she endured during her time with Montpellier.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Some of them are particularly serious, and the shortcut that results from them \u2014 portraying the club as a racist entity \u2014 is unacceptable,” Montpellier’s statement read.<\/p>\n

Fowler was 17 when she joined Montpellier in 2020 and played at the club for almost three seasons before leaving for Manchester City.<\/p>\n

In her book, Fowler wrote she and teammate Ashleigh Weerden were left out of a presentation for departing players<\/a>, who were given flowers after the final home match of the season.<\/p>\n

“Afterwards, when we got inside the changing room, some of our teammates questioned why we hadn’t received any flowers,” Fowler wrote.<\/p>\n

“We shrugged our shoulders, just as clueless as they were.<\/p>\n

“A few of the girls laughed about it and then one of the other players came over and handed my friend and me some bananas, saying, ‘Here, have these’. That was the cherry on top.<\/p>\n

“Since leaving Montpellier, my friend and I have spoken about that moment a few times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Not receiving flowers was one thing, but as two of only six black girls in the squad, receiving bananas wasn’t something I could laugh off and forget about.”<\/p>\n

\"Mary<\/p>\n

Mary Fowler (right) joined Manchester City after departing Montpellier. (Getty Images: Jess Hornby\/FA)<\/p>\n

Montpellier’s statement offered a different version of events.<\/p>\n

“From a purely factual standpoint, the truth leaves no room for interpretation,” the statement read.<\/p>\n

“On June 1, 2022, the women’s team played their last home match against Bordeaux.<\/p>\n

“At the end of the match, as had been customary for several seasons, two players whose contracts were expiring \u2014 and who were therefore wearing the club’s colours for the last time \u2014 were honoured with a bouquet of flowers.<\/p>\n

“This was neither the case for Mary Fowler nor for the teammate mentioned in her book, both of whom were still under contract with the club until June 30, 2023.<\/p>\n

“It would therefore have been rather inappropriate for the club to offer them a farewell gift.”<\/p>\n

Regarding the alleged events inside the dressing room, Montpellier said it consulted those present that day and concluded there was no evidence to support Fowler’s account.<\/p>\n

“If incidents of this nature had been reported and proven, the club would have taken all necessary measures as soon as they were brought to its attention,” the statement read.<\/p>\n

“Racism is a serious issue that must not be exploited. The club wishes to reiterate its daily commitment to fighting all forms of discrimination.”<\/p>\n

AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French football club Montpellier has denied racism allegations made by Matildas forward Mary Fowler, who says a teammate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[144395,170648,64,63,596,2592,2354,28533,44964,166266,2966,85],"class_list":["post-298213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-allegation","tag-ashleigh-weerden","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-france","tag-manchester-city","tag-mary-fowler","tag-matildas","tag-montpellier","tag-racism","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}