The Colmar Court of Appeal once again sentenced Mulhouse Olympic Natation (MON) on Friday 13 May. He will have to pay Yannick Agnel the last year of his contract, ie 60,000 euros, we learned from a judicial source. This decision rendered by the second civil chamber of the Alsatian jurisdiction confirms the judgment rendered at first instance by the Mulhouse judicial court on July 7, 2020. The club will also have to pay 2,000 euros to Yannick Agnel and the company LGY, which manages his contracts and his image rights, according to this judicial source.
“We take note of the position of the Court of Appeal, which in its judgment reproduces in all respects the judgment which had been pronounced” in Mulhouse, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Dominique Riegel, the club’s lawyer. Asked about the possibility of an appeal in cassation, the council was circumspect: “The Court of Cassation does not judge the facts but rules on the law… I don’t think an appeal is admissible. »
“By confirming the perfectly reasoned judgment of the Mulhouse court, the Colmar Court of Appeal puts an end to the unfounded disputes of the MON and restores Yannick Agnel in his rights. This decision is perfectly justified both in terms of the facts and the law.reacted for his part Nicolas Mahassen, counsel for Yannick Agnel.
Other ongoing cases at Mulhouse Olympic Natation
At the origin of the dispute: an agreement signed by the two parties, in which the Mulhouse club had undertaken to pay its swimmer up to 50,000 euros in 2014 then 60,000 in 2015 and 2016. In August 2016, during the Rio Olympics, Yannick Agnel had announced to the press, after his elimination in the series of 200 m freestyle, that he was retiring from the international. The MON, which had found a breach of contract on the part of the swimmer, had then suspended the payments.
The training club of Roxana Maracineanu, world swimming champion in 1998 and Minister for Sports, MON is currently in turmoil. The latest accounts, published in September 2019, show an annual deficit of 44,000 euros and a debt of 780,000 euros, despite 680,000 euros in subsidies.
In another case, the club is currently under investigation for “scam attempt” for facts dating back to 2016, on complaint with civil action by the family of a swimmer. He is also at the heart of a preliminary investigation into his management, opened in January 2020 by the Mulhouse prosecution, and entrusted to the financial brigade. As for Yannick Agnel, he was indicted in December for “rape and sexual assault” after a complaint from the daughter of his former coach, Lionel Horter.