The former boss of French skating, Didier Gailhaguet, had the State condemned on Friday to pay him 5,000 euros in moral damages for having ” pressure “ to obtain his resignation from the federation at the beginning of 2020 due to a scandal of sexual violence within the discipline.
In this decision consulted Monday, January 17 by Agence France-Presse, the administrative court of Paris considers that the Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, has “exerted pressure (…) decisive” to get him to resign, preventing the French Ice Sports Federation (FFSCG) from “to speak freely on the subject”.
Fifteen days before her resignation, several former skaters, including Sarah Abitbol in her book “Such a long silence”, had accused their former coaches, notably Gilles Beyer, of rape and sexual assault.
5,000 euros in non-pecuniary damage
Didier Gailhaguet, who presided over the FFSG since 1998 [à l’exception d’une parenthèse entre 2004 et 2007] had been accused of having kept the latter in the skating circuit, despite suspicions in 2000, which he defends himself.
The former president of the FFSG, who had first made an administrative appeal without success, then brought the case before the administrative court. He accepted one of the arguments of the former boss of the FFSG, who believed that the minister, through public speeches, “interfered in the competences of the federation to impose his resignation while the conditions for revocation of the mandate of the president are strictly defined in the statutes of the federation and exclude any intervention by the State”.
Didier Gailhaguet claimed 152,550 euros corresponding to the 27 months of compensation he would have received, according to him, if he had gone to the end of his term, as well as 150,000 euros in non-pecuniary damage.
Justice found him wrong on the first point, but awarded him 5,000 euros in non-pecuniary damage, estimating that “its image and reputation [avaient] been reached” in particular, because “the alleged facts were not yet established and could not be attributed to him”.
The Ministry of Sports did not wish to comment on the decision, in this case which is experiencing other legal developments.
In a statement, his lawyers, Mr.are William Bourdon and Brengarth, welcomed a decision “exceptional” Who “sanctions the interference of a minister (…) purely for political purposes.. “It gives him back his unjustly flouted honor within the ice sports community and more generally the national sports movement”, according to them.
Following the revelations of Sarah Abitbol, the Ministry of Sports had launched an investigation with the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (IGESR). His report scratched the functioning of the FFSG marked by “a strong concentration of powers”, notably in the hands of Didier Gailhaguet, source of a “form of omerta”.