Among the mountain of files processed by the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the dysfunctions of sports federations, which has just issued a vitriolic report, a small secret has gone under the radar: that of the French Fencing Federation (FFE). However, it is worth stopping for a moment., especially since fencing represents, six months before the launch of the Olympic Games, a highly anticipated provider of medals. In Olympic history, France is the second best nation on the list behind Italy, and in Tokyo, in 2021, fencing was the second French discipline to bring home the most medals (5) behind judo (8). ).
Between critical financial situation, employee waltz, brutal management, and suspicions of embezzlement, never had the FFE gone through such a whirlwind in its entire history. With, as a common denominator, its (former) president, Bruno Gares, the former advisor to Laura Flessel at the Ministry of Sports in 2017, who presented his resignation on September 29 to everyone’s surprise.
A president pushed towards the exit
A departure “for personal reasons”, according to the press release published by the FFE at the end of September. And according to Bruno Gares, jumbled together: professional burnout, financial problems as volunteer president and family worries, as he explained during his hearing last October before the parliamentary commission of inquiry.
In truth, according to our information, it was pushed towards the exit, while an investigation by the general inspection carried out by the Ministry of Sports has been underway since last March, after several internal reports alerting to its federal mismanagement . Its conclusions are expected very soon and could lead to a report to the public prosecutor under article 40 of the criminal procedure code.
“When he explains during his hearing that he had lost 10,000 euros per year and that, financially, it was complicated for him, it’s a fool’s errand. What I believe, to be clear, is that he was screwed over the money, that his office realized it and that they kicked him out,” a former employee tells us. of the FFE. A scenario confirmed by the minutes of the steering committee of December 2, including 20 minutes was able to obtain a copy. This reports “factual elements highlighted in the office by the treasurer during September 2023”, a few months after the reporting of the first “worrying elements putting staff in trouble “.
10,000 euros of unjustified expenses
During this steering committee, Emmanuelle Rodriguez, vice-president of the FFE, revealed “the production of accounting documents that do not comply with the functioning of the financial services of the FFE” and “unacceptable on the part of a president”. Clearly, the former volunteer president would have taken advantage of his position, and the fact that he was not domiciled in Ile-de-France, to have an easy expense report and to compensate for his shortfall after having put between brackets his professional career to devote himself 100% to his federal mission. “Faced with this situation, even if there was no proven personal enrichment”, we can read in the minutes, the members of the office asked, on September 25, “explanations from Bruno Stations.” Four days later, the latter formalized his surprise resignation.
In detail, if some of her reimbursement requests seem to have been rejected, such as her hotel reservations on the Booking.com site or the rental of an apartment in Paris, Brigitte Saint Bonnet, the new president of the body, admitted that “around 10,000 euros” of “expenses not corresponding to his mission” had been paid to him by the FFE. To date, “the damage suffered is not measurable quantitatively in its entirety”, explains the federal office, which adds that “Bruno Gares has (since) justified certain expenses and has already reimbursed certain sums requested”. However, during our meeting with President Brigitte Saint Bonnet on December 19, she never mentioned financial irregularities on the part of Bruno Gares, simply conceding “a difference of views in the management of the federation” .
Asked about these embezzlements, a former close friend did not pretend to be surprised. He remembers having observed the questionable practices of Bruno Gares from the end of the 90s, at the time when he was only a simple armorer for the French teams. “He brought back receipts collected from bar trash cans and he gave invoices that were well beyond what he had actually spent. He was picking up trash, I saw it with my own eyes! And he would tell you ”oh shit, with all the time we spend there…”. When I reported it, I was told ”forget it, it’s 100 or 200 euros”. I already found it crazy but now, federation president is no longer the armourer of the French team, it’s open bar! »
An alarming financial situation
In three years of Bruno Gares’ reign, the economic situation of the FFE, whose budget is estimated at 7.8 million euros, continued to deteriorate. In a letter addressed to the Steering Committee at the beginning of December, and which we were able to obtain, elected officials are particularly concerned about the “adventurous, expensive and irresponsible management, which heavily jeopardizes the future of the federation” and warn “on the sporting, moral and financial risks incurred by the FFE”. With nearly 700,000 euros in deficit for the year 2022, and nearly 330,000 euros in 2023, despite the ex-president’s repeated promises of a return to balance, “the FFE is living beyond its means to the tune of one million euros over the year 2023” according to its authors.
“The money set aside upon the departure of Isabelle Lamour (the former president from 2013 to 2020), with the sale of the headquarters and the move to Noisy-le-Grand, was siphoned off. At that time, the federation had two to three million euros to live on and, little by little, we found ourselves in a difficult situation. Every time we made comments or there was a problem, Bruno Gares put his decisions to the vote and his entire team was at his service and voted for it,” breathes Jean-Jacques Béna, a well-known figure in the world of fencing and member of the steering committee as a qualified personality.
“He is strong with the weak and weak with the strong”
If the FFE had to deal with the impact of Covid on its finances, certain very costly decisions are directly attributable to Bruno Gares, such as the creation of a position of director of high-performance with vague contours, entrusted to one of his relatives, a certain Frantz Philippe, from whom the FFE is today seeking to separate. “We already had a DTN, a director of the French teams, the structures and people were already in place, what was the need to create this extremely expensive new position? », Chokes Philippe Lafay, former vice-president of Isabelle Lamour, now in the federal opposition.
A personal conflict which degenerated between Bruno Gares and an employee also cost the industrial tribunal dearly: 150,000 euros paid to the former administrative director Alexandre Rumpli, whose dismissal for serious misconduct was deemed abusive, even if the FFE did call. Contacted by us, Alexandre Rumpli told us that he had a very bad experience of what he considers to be moral harassment. He mentions “threats to push (him) to leave”.
He explained to me that he was going to take me to court, that I was going to have to sell my house, he put a lot of pressure on me. He made me understand that he had the best lawyers in Paris and that I was going to pay him dearly. However, it was a relatively simple matter to manage and I had no problem asserting my rights at the industrial tribunal. That’s his thing, to scare, but it’s just a joke. Generally speaking, Bruno Gares is the type who is strong with the weak and weak with the strong. »
The former administrative director is not the only one to portray a character with questionable methods and unorthodox comments. Under his presidency, many witnesses described a “heavy” atmosphere and “brutal management”. Since his election, no less than two DTNs and three treasurers have succeeded one another. This human management is also coupled with political-sporting management to match. An experienced fencer, who has known him for 20 years, describes him thus on condition of anonymity.
“I like him, he’s a good companion to go for a drink with. But the truth is, it’s a penguin. For me it was already amazing that he dared to introduce himself and that people dared to line up behind him. So let him be elected… The idea I had of him, and it was quickly confirmed, is that he does anything. He has an idea, bam he launches the thing. And then finally, no, it doesn’t work. Ah but shit actually it’s too late to turn back? Well, let’s go anyway and then we’ll see. There you go, Bruno is like that. » Another witness uses his comic book readings to sketch the character: “Lucky Luke and Doctor Doxley, you see? This is the man who went from village to village to sell a product that makes hair grow. It’s exactly him. He plucks, he gets unmasked and presto, he takes his cart and changes villages. »
Protected by a sloppy federal office?
But if his detractors are not kind to the character, very few of them believe in the theory of the solitary man working behind the back of the federation. “We do not support the posture of the federal office which would like to make ex-president Bruno Gares the scapegoat for all the injuries inflicted on our sport,” declared Jean-Jacques Béna on December 2 during the steering committee.
“The entire federal office was united, at least in its silence. The president was able to do things in secret, but over three years they condoned a lot of behavior and reprehensible acts,” insists Luc-Olivier Barriol, former elected official. Accusations strongly rejected by Brigitte Saint-Bonnet during the steering committee of December 2, claiming that “the office, like the steering committee, are in no way directly responsible for these facts, having only looked at these elements from of April 2023”. Date on which, according to the president “a monitoring commission was set up following this alert”.
Questionable ties with Russia
If the future of Bruno Gares is now written far from the FFE, he has not given up his mandate at the International Fencing Federation. Elected in November 2021 to the executive committee of the FIE, led by the Russian-Uzbek oligarch Alicher Usmanov, until the latter’s withdrawal due to the war in Ukraine, Bruno Gares has always maintained good relations with the Russian networks still powerful at the FIE.
He is thus suspected of having voted for the reintegration of Russian and Belarusian athletes into official competitions in March 2023, against the instructions of the Ministry of Sports and the President of the Republic. Protected by the secrecy of the voting booth, the Rodézien, on the other hand, did not hide the fact that he participated in the disqualification of the Ukrainian swordswoman Olga Kharlan during the World Championships in Milan (date), after the latter’s refusal to tighten the hand of the Russian fencer Anna Smirnova, as revealed by journalist Romain Molina in The Inquisitor. If Kharlan will end up being reinstated in the team competition under pressure from the IOC, the attitude of the president of the FFE has not failed to irritate the French government. When contacted by us, neither the Ministry of Sports nor Bruno Gares responded to our requests.