Paris (AFP)

The Paris Court of Appeal, which tried several defendants in the case of suspicions of matches arranged around the Nîmes-Olympique in Ligue 2 in 2014, released Tuesday the former boss of the Caen club Jean-François Fortin.

On September 13, 2018, Mr. Fortin was sentenced to 15 months suspended sentence and 15,000 euros fine for passive bribery, as regards the central match of the case, a 1-1 draw in Nîmes-Caen on May 13, 2014, which allowed the Normans to go up to Ligue 1 and to Nîmes to avoid relegation. He had always denied any hint of arrangement.

"His honor is restored," commented to AFP François Géry who defended it with Nicolas Demard. "The court of appeal sanctions and recalls that a criminal file is not the file of + on dit +," added the lawyer.

At the end of the 2013-2014 season, the Nîmes-Olympique club was at the foot of the wall, threatened with a National run.

Its leaders at the time, Jean-Marc Conrad, president, and Serge Kasparian, co-shareholder, were found guilty in 2018 of having tried to arrange the score of several matches in order to avoid the relegation of this club which they had just resumed.

They who had always denied any wrongdoing had abandoned their calls. Their sentences to three years in prison including 18 months suspended and 50,000 euros fine are final.

The investigation was largely based on more or less clear wiretapping - "Start to machine, we will give what is needed", "A loaned for a rendering" ... - in which the term "arrangement" was recurrent.

- "I never cheated" -

For the criminal court, five matches had been the subject of attempted arrangements: the matches of Nîmes against Bastia (0-0), Dijon (defeat 5-1), Brest (1-1), Caen (1-1 ) and Créteil (1-1).

These attempts had failed. The defendants were not accused of having altered the outcome of the meetings, but of having tried.

Four of the seven men convicted in 2018 had been retried: Mr. Fortin, the intermediary and former boss of amateur club Franck Toutoundjian and two men suspected of having been punctual intermediaries, the businessman Michel Moulin and a former player become "mental coach", Mohamed Regragui.

Regarding Caen, the Court of Appeal considered that "the proof of the guilt of Jean-François Fortin", who had mentioned on the telephone the interest of a draw with Mr. Conrad, "is not reported ", according to its decision consulted by AFP.

The Malherbe de Caen stadium "regains the honor it should never have lost following this affair," the club responded in a statement.

"I am personally relieved that Jean-François Fortin, who has always shown loyalty as president and partner of the club, also regains his honor," said its president Fabrice Clément.

Mr. Toutoundjian, sentenced on appeal for the matches against Dijon, Brest and Créteil, saw his sentence reduced to one year in prison suspended.

He was acquitted as regards the match against Caen, "the investigation having revealed that he was informed of the agreement established by Messrs. Conrad and Kasparian with a view to bribing Mr. Fortin, but did not demonstrate his own participation in the facts. "

Mr. Moulin was sentenced to six months suspended sentence and 10,000 euros fine for the match against Dijon.

Mr. Regragui, prosecuted for Nîmes-Créteil, was meanwhile released. He said he was "relieved": "I have never cheated in my life".

© 2020 AFP