Thursday at the end of the day, just before the quarter-final return of the Europa League Conference ultimately fatal to his club, the president of OGC Nice spoke for the first time on the Galtier affair. For The Team And Nice morningthe leader broke the silence in which he had walled himself for more than a week in order to “pause on this subject and preserve the group as much as possible”, as he explained.
On the merits of the case, no great revelation. “I was auditioned, I gave all the elements that I considered to have in my possession”, he says, without going into details. Regarding the famous email, he was aware that Julien Fournier was going to send a letter to Ineos, owner of the club, but he never knew the content. “I can’t express myself [dessus]. You may believe that I am lying to you, but I have never seen or read this email, ”he assures.
“Everyone will have total freedom to express themselves”
Jean-Pierre Rivère now intends to let justice work. “The investigation will be long, there is no rush,” he continues, affirming that “thereafter, everyone will have complete freedom to express themselves to say what they think”. He in any case will not add “cacophony” to that ambient. He does not wish to publicly expand on certain stormy meetings which he would have attended between Christophe Galtier and Julien Fournier.
“We are a club, an institution, my role is to preserve this institution. We have shareholders, Ineos, who are remarkable. Afterwards, sincerely, justice will make its way and it will come to conclusions. Which ones? I don’t know, and we’ll see,” he concludes.