In deep sh... French fed

Nmsis

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Yes and no.

On the scandal about a culture of violences and sexual assaults on minors in figure skating, he probably won't face any court.
On the french side, most cases were too old to be trialed, some coaches have been condemned but the biggest case will never be judged as Gilles Beyer died at the begining of this year. He was the most troubled, the one Gailhaguet pushed up within the FFSG.
And on the american/Morgan Ciprès side, that's the "shell" of FFSG that is aimed at, not Gailhaguet who has been "exorcized" again recently.

Gailhaguet is often described as a "pervers narcissique". Someone who openly despises flaws but secretly uses others and those others' flaws to divide, conquer and stay at the top of the pyramid.

IMHO, there is one way to get Gailhaguet. Money.
And there again lies a paradox.
To keep it forever, Gailhaguet has willingly kept the FFSG as small and "unattractive" and poor as possible so it wouldn't draw any kind of attention. (The narrative being that, in this little swamp, only he can find and polish some rare diamonds/athletes)
But within it, there is still money. Not big money. But enough money for a few people.
Since 2007 and his 2nd coming, Gailhaguet has a motto : the FFSG lacks competences.
But instead of hiring or gaining competences, he externalized them. Oddly, they are often friends or even ex-employees.
So the FFSG never improved, and a few selected people get the money.
No one has ever followed that trail.
Hiring competences was the first thing Pechalat did.
And the first thing undone by the new team, which is trying to do it again after being blackmailed by Gailhaguet to cut off all their contractors and sponsors if he wasn't called back.

After Gailhaguet's recent (3rd) downfall, the FFSG has recently published one year of reunions of its Bureau Executif.
And it goes from reading Gailhaguet's comeback strategy by proxies through the year to OMFG, what the f* is this whole mess !
I've red the whole thing like a thriller and OMFG, wasn't the reunion of the 7th of march absolutly phenomenally juicy (and crazy).
It sounds like a politburo reunion, until Mephisto appears and all hell breaks loose.

Hopefully, a train ran over Mephisto and his minions a few days later.

To avoid polluting the french skaters topic, I'm opening a special thread about the french fed.
A neverending story ...
 

Nmsis

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There have been a few stories lately so here they are.


We already knew that Gailhaguet's financial management was under investigation.
Reading the minutes of a reunion of the french fed, it appears that during the latest years of Gailhaguet as president (2019-2020), the french fed bought a mobile rink. It was to be used for galas, Worlds in Montpellier, and some other stuff.
They bought a rink, a refrigerating system, barriers, a zamboni, plus several options for an official amount of 1.1 million €.
That's what they said....
At least to the Agence Nationale du Sport whom they provided a receipt to get a partial subsidy of approximatly 466 000 €, so around 40% of the amount.
The provider was storing the equipment for free and with Gailhaguet gone, no one was exactly aware of the details of this purchase.

But curiously, when the fed used it (under Pechalat's presidency), the fed received a 400 000 € bill for some of the very stuff they had already bought. Which led to questions that were still unanswered ...
Well, the current president of the fed now has an answer.
The provider of the rink (name is edited but ... recognisable for those who watch French Nats) explained to her that the fed did pay 1.1 million €, and then the fed told him they didn't want part of the equipment (value : 677 000€). So the subsidy would more or less cover the price of what was actually bought.
In exchange, the provider was asked for a fake sponsoring contract of the same value, which he did provide so the fed would get back the money.
So it's a fraud on public subsidies that the fed must now repay.
But I'm curious of the detail of what happened with the money... I hope the investigation will dig deeper.
And the provider, who "voluntarily" admitted all of this, will continue being a partner of the fed. :scream:
 

Nmsis

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Second news,
That I also read in the minutes of an FFSG reunion,
The FFSG didn't do the mandatory verification of the criminal record of its volunteers, from July 2022 to the departure of Galhaguet's pals.

More exactly the government has implemented a system in which sport feds enter the names and birth dates of their volunteers and automatically (with a day or two) get an "okay" or a "no way" for each volunteer, based on their criminal record, with an annual verification. It's called the "contrôle d'honorabilité". It was already implemented for the coaches via their professional card. Now, it is meant to cover everyone from the club's administration to the rink staff to the volunteers who help in clubs.

It is a serious breach in the system of the "protection des mineurs" and that could have consequences if the FFSG doesn't prove its will to apply it strictly.

Following the 2022 FFSG election, this was supposed to be done by a guy who was a great pal of Gailhaguet. Of course he did nothing.
Then by May, the president who was elected thanks to Gailhaguet decided to fire the Gailhaguet partisans (plot twist), and she noticed that the guy did nothing and said it during the reunion. So she is actually is accountable for the guy who did nothing and for the change that followed.


Which leads to the third news
Following the Sarah Abitbol case and several others, there has been a Parlement committee about sexist and sexual violences and additional problems in sports federations. It auditioned victims as well as many sports feds' presidents and sports managers.
It lasted a few months and my, was it a wow period !
The victims' testimonies were extremely impressive and dignified, Sarah Abitbol being one of them.
Some of the presidents' and managers' testimonies were absolutly lunatic, going from "I don't know" to "why are you bothering me, ask my secretary", especially with the bigger feds.
Then came the time of the FFSG.
Gwenaelle Noury (current president) and Nathalie Péchalat (ex-president) testified in a freezing ambiance. Guns were out. And the elephant (Gailhaguet) was (not) in the room.
Oh the faces ! The looks ! The intensity ! Nathalie was in for a round 2.
It lasted almost 2 hours.
The saddest part was when Nathalie said she received threats about her daughters in anonymous letters (she was describing the ambiance at the FFSG during her presidency).
The most awkward when the Morgan Ciprès case was evoked.
Nathalie had to explain it to the committee. She was feeling sooo bad.

The new president was eager to say that Nathalie didn't transmit her any info about it (Nathalie's eyes could have killed her, saying she transmitted a big file about Ciprès plus a long informative mail before leaving but she can't send it to the committee since her FFSG email account has been erased) and that now, under her presidency everything is done properly.

Which made me jump on my seat as she admitted the opposite in the reunion mentioned in news number 2. Then the rapporteur of the committee digged about the Joubert case and found out that Mrs Noury doesn't actually know the "contrôle d'honorabilité" procedure and that she gets pretty confused when she's asked for details.

So now, the report is done and its conclusions and recommandations should be published on January 16.
But there is an icing on the cake.

In France, we are not used to watch parliamentary committees so little did people know that the audition of that committee were under oath.
We're not american so lying under oath is not something that will ruin anyone's life as long as it is "reasonable" (like memory problems on old events, intimate stuff, or approximations from people who don't really know).
But perjury is still punishable "up to" a 75 000€ fine and 5 years in jail.
And for the sake of showing the sports heads they are not untouchable, the committee has reported the perjury of 7 heads of sports fed to the Procureur (Attorney General ?), especially selected because they didn't bother sending a corrective letter with further details to the committee.

And who is among the 7 people reported for perjury ?
Mrs Noury, the current president of the FFSG !
 
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Nmsis

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Wow you can always guarantee the French Federation to be a nightmare.
It has a morbid tendancy that Gailhaguet instilled.
The question is whether the people at the head of the fed are able to make a fresh start or not.
So far they are not (and Gailhaguet will do his best to make them fail, one after another).



Oh my. Thank you @Nmsis for posting this.

I think I missed the Joubert case - what happened there?
Facts :

1. parents from Poitiers have reported to the federation that Brian was talking down to some children, was having angry outbursts, was suddenly removing some child from competition, some children being traumatized. It has led to an administrative inquiry by a service of the Sport Ministry. OTOH Brian complains about being insulted by parents.

2. Some have also reported Brian for a relationship with a minor skater (who is above 15yo). Brian denies. Friends of the girl say it happened but that the girl was consenting and doesn't want to press charges. But in a relationship with a figure of authority, the age of consent is 18yo so is penally punishable. There is a police inquiry.

Context :

1. Joubert's club in Poitiers has always been controversial. According to the FFSG's rule, it shouldn't exist as the FFSG recognize only one figure skating club per rink. But Gailhaguet made an exception... And like in Nice where another exception was made by Gailhaguet for another pal, there is not enough ice time to share. Since then, there has been a 7 years long war between the clubs. There were resignations, burn-outs, lawsuits... it's a highly inflamable ambiance.

2. Joubert's club has been Gailhaguet's refuge since 2020. And it's from there he tried to gain the FFSG back. Since the 2022 election, Joubert was the chairman of the figure skating committee. And he was a vocal supporter of the full return of Gailhaguet.
So when Mrs Noury decided to get rid of Gailhaguet's supporters at the end of the 2022-2023 season, he was first on her list. And he sued back when he was expelled from the federation's board. So on this front, the situation is also highly inflamable.

3. Mrs Noury who is a newcomer has built her "new new presidency" on a partnership with a lawyer, Mrs Daval who is now the fed's number two. Mrs Daval is the mother of a 16 yo skating girl who has been coached at least for a couple of years by Joubert (girl still appears on the club's web page in the coaching team). IIRC, Mrs Daval was a member of Brian's club board until last season. It's probably Gailhaguet's idea to have her move into the FFSG board to strengthen his "mama takeover plan". Since the surprising twist of last May in which Mrs Daval changed side, you can bet there is a high level of wrath and the news from Poitiers' club directly come to Mrs Noury via Mrs Daval.
 
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