But she wasn't the one who put together the task force that didn't actually do any investigation, right? Dider did that.
The disciplinary commitee existed before Nathalie. It wasn't right on course when she was elected, some of its members were not in capacity, rendering it unable to function. Nathalie did not put the task force together, but she was the one calling for the disciplinary session. To make it work, they (she and her team) had to, first, put it back on legal track by finding members who could legally be part of it.
Then, the duty of the disciplinary commitee is NOT to investigate. Its field of competences is limited to decide of sanctions when people breach the rules set by the federation. As I am currently working on this media-wise, I asked a lawyer for legal details (a lawyer who has nothing to see with figure skating and who doesn't even know what sport is concerned by my research). To pronounce a sanction, the disciplinary committee must have a legal document which will serve as the basis of the whole procedure. In this particular occurence, it could have been a complaint to the police (there is none), the proof of a legal investigation (Safe Sport doesn't communicate on its investigations nor does the Sherif office apparently), or the subject of litigation itself, i.e. the picture. It seems no one was in a position to provide such a document, even not the lawyer's victim. (Before I'm flamed for this, please people, I am NOT blaming anyone, just giving the informations I gathered and note the use of "seem, apparently", etc as I'm not claiming everything I was told by my contacts @ FFSG is true) Ciprès may not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier but he was certainly not going to provide the picture and willingly incriminate itself in front of the committee. That's also why the Ministry of Sport hasn't nuked the federation. It would have been the perfect opportunity, except the law is not on the Ministry's side. Media investigations and articles aren't legal documents so, even if the whole world knows for a fact that Ciprès did send this dickpic to a minor (his "apology" was made public by the press, and it's equivalent to a virtual confession but as long as the committee didn't have a copy of the original message, they couldn't base their sentence upon it either), there was no legal way to sentence him.
I read countless times that FFSG and the disciplinary committee hadn't bother to ask, but it seems it's not true. I also read that Péchalat and Ciprès are "friends", which is not true either. Definitely. They were team mates for two seasons and met for competitions and a spring tour. I've never known them for being personal friends and I'm around the team very often. Among current and former French competitors, Ciprès' behavior did not go well at all. At a national gathering I attended last December, he was left alone and aside by his team mates for the entire day, had lunch with James and Meité only (these two are best friends) on a separate table, and he spent most of his time with... Didier Gailhaguet.
When the disciplinary commitee rendered its (absence of) sentence, I was among the first to facepalm so hard I almost fractured my frontal lobe. I couldn't believe it. (Oh and
@hanca, I owe you a bottle of champagne
) But that was before I had the legal details about the whole thing. Not only could they not render a "verdict" (I'm putting verdict between brackets because a disciplinary committee isn't a court of justice even if it follows more or less the same rules), but they could have been sued if they had. Making an appeal would have been useless as things were, absence of material proof and so on, and you can't judge someone twice for a same crime. That's, I assume, why FFSG didn't appeal. I don't know what the future will be for Ciprès and what I fear the most is that, in France, there is nothing that can legally prevent him to resume competing. But... He hasn't had any financial support from FFSG, at least not since Nathalie has been elected as far as I know, and he has taken a day job to make a living. He hasn't trained for more then 6 months. To this day, he and his partner are still on different continents. But nr 2... Can the FFSG (as it is now or will soon be with the appropriate set of rules) legally cut him off completely if he isn't suspended by the disciplinary committee? Oh it happened in the past for other skaters who were not in odor of sanctity with Gailhaguet. And he had enough power and political ties to make them shut up. That is not Nathalie's case and she will be blackballed at the first mistake, she is in a very precarious position. Her seat is the ejection seat by definition. Not that she will jump to save herself like a fighter jet pilot, but someone at the Ministry will press the ejection key.
For the record, Nathalie is not one of my personal friends and has never been. Her former partner
is. They haven't much contacts now as they no longer work in the same city and they hadn't much contact either even when they worked at the same rink. So I'm not posting to be her virtual defence attorney. My main concern is the competitors. I
WANT FFSG to become a normal sport organisation that treats its athletes well, protect and defend them. The nuclear option would be a major landslide and probably a deadly one for the competitors, whether they are Elite or of a lower level. C0vid is enough of a threat looming over the forthcoming season without losing an entire team to a restructuring done as an emergency plan. French skaters, like anyone else, do not deserve to have they whole world turned upside down because a single moron among them committed a crime. Above all when some of them have been victims of abuse themselves. As much as we have been told that another organisation, like the National Olympic Commitee, would take over and every thing'd be fine, it's France people... With one of the slowest and heaviest bureaucracy system in the world. So I really don't know which option is the best but the nuclear one worries me much more than Nathalie being the new president. But that's just me and maybe I'm totally wrong...
apnews.com
www.france24.com
sport24.lefigaro.fr
