The crisis continues at the French Federation of Ice Sports (FFSG), shaken since 2020 by scandals of sexual violence. It is now the turn of the financial brigade to take an interest in the management of the organization by Didier Gailhaguet, the former omnipotent president. A preliminary investigation will be opened, in particular for breach of trust, and entrusted to the financial brigade, indicated Tuesday the parquet floor of Paris, requested by AFP.
These investigations follow a recent report from the General Inspectorate for Education, Sport and Research (IGESR). In a report, the summary of which was published on Saturday, the IGESR alerted, among other things, to the improper use of the federation’s bank card and a lack of contract transparency under the governance of Didier Gailhaguet (1998-2004 then 2007-2020).
The latter, aged 69, has not officially been at the helm of the federation for three years, after being forced to resign for covering up a coach implicated in rape and sexual assault in another case. The inspection of the governance of the FFSG before 2020 had been decided in the wake of the election in June 2022 of the current president of the FFSG, Gwenaëlle Noury, very strongly suspected of having been remotely guided by Didier Gailhaguet. Contacted by AFP, Didier Gailhaguet’s lawyer and the current president did not respond immediately.
“Opaque Management”
After 130 hearings, the inspection reported many facts: “use of the federation’s bank card for inappropriate expenses and sometimes without supporting documents”, “lack of transparency in the management of certain service contracts and important advice with companies historically linked to the FFSG, for sometimes very high costs through opaque interpersonal relations with the former management and administrative team”.
But also “the combination of activities of an employee” of the FSSG with “that of president of a service provider” from 2014 to 2019, “non-regulatory methods of remuneration for high-level athletes and the activities of agents undeclared athletes”, “opaque management of ticketing” before 2020 as well as “threats and attempts to intimidate current leaders”. The icing on the cake: the destruction of archives with a “shredder”, shortly before the end of Didier Gailhaguet’s mandate. He was then replaced by Nathalie Péchalat.
The effects of the 2020 earthquake “still very present”
“The mission establishes the many shortcomings that marked the governance of the federation before 2020, some of which may be criminal, summed up the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, in a tweet on Saturday. The report highlights the profound transformations that remain to be carried out within the federation, despite a process of restoring order operated by the successive governances since 2020, which should be underlined. »
These suspicions of financial offenses darken the horizon of the FFSG, which has been sinking into the crisis since the winter of 2020 and the Abitbol affair, the champion who said she was raped as a teenager by her former coach Gilles Beyer, now deceased. As the IGESR report points out, “the effects of the 2020 crisis, which implicated more than twenty coaches for sexual and gender-based violence, are still very present”, with “divisions” and “rivalries between clubs, between coaches, between disciplines, between former athletes”.