A dramatic turn of events this Thursday during the general assembly of the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF): its president Brigitte Henriques, elected in June 2021, has just announced her resignation at the opening. This rebound necessarily challenges, fourteen months before the Olympic Games in Paris. This puts an end to an internal crisis that has lasted for more than a year and a half, as indicated on Thursday by the CNOSF.
Internal conflicts and rivalries got the better of the former vice-president of the French Football Federation (FFF), at open war for months with her predecessor Denis Masseglia.
The secretary general of the body Astrid Guyart will ensure the interim until the election of a new president “in the next three months”, specifies CNOSF press release. “The situation was no longer tenable, she made the right choice,” reacted a federation president present at the time of the announcement of this resignation, during a much-awaited general meeting.
Henriques’ former right-hand man ousted in September
For more than a year and a half, the CNOSF has been going through an unprecedented crisis, between threats of complaints, low blows and revelations of email exchanges in the press. This climate has become even heavier in recent days with the announcement by Denis Masseglia of an upcoming complaint to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) for breach of trust targeting the term of office of Brigitte Henriques.
The eviction in September 2022 of Brigitte Henriques’ former right-hand man, Didier Seminet, triggered a deep crisis from which the institution has never recovered. The proximity to the Paris Olympics, in fourteen months, and this endless crisis, worried many players in French sport. “This resignation is a way of settling the crisis, and it’s quite noble,” reacted another federation president.