Paris (AFP)
Didier Gailhaguet "has made a conscious decision to resign," said the Sports Ministry in response to the former president of the French Ice Sports Federation (FFSG), who is claiming some 300,000 euros in compensation for having treated him. "scapegoat" in the scandal of sexual violence in French skating.
In an administrative appeal, Didier Gailhaguet denounced the pressures and declarations of the Minister for Sports Roxana Maracineanu to force him to resign, at the beginning of last February, from the head of the FFSG. He also claimed 152,550 euros corresponding to the 27 months of compensation he would have received according to him if he had gone to the end of his mandate, as well as 150,000 euros of non-pecuniary damage.
After the dismissal from the ministry, the former patron of French skating has the possibility of seizing the administrative court.
In a letter dated May 29 of which AFP obtained a copy, the ministry considers that Didier Gailhaguet has "decided in full conscience to resign from his mandate as president of the FFSG", after that, in the context "and in within the framework of the supervision exercised by the State over sports federations "," the Minister questioned him on the possible dysfunctions of federal governance and invited him to assume his responsibilities as legal representative of the federation ".
Fifteen days before her resignation, several former skaters, including Sarah Abitbol in her book "Un si long silence", had accused rape and sexual assault different from their former trainers, notably Gilles Beyer.
Didier Gailhaguet, who then chaired the FFSG since 1998 (with the exception of a parenthesis between 2004 and 2007), had been accused of having kept him in the French skating circuit, despite suspicions in 2000, which he defends himself.
"The mission entrusted to the general inspectorate (...) aims in particular to examine all of these facts and to identify the various chains of responsibility in connection with the possible non-denunciation of crimes and / or misdemeanors of a nature mentioned by the victims, "said the ministry.
"The ministry will continue to act firmly, within the framework of its prerogatives and with unfailing determination, to change behavior and ensure that sports federations respect their obligations in matters of discipline, information and prevention , vis-à-vis educators implicated for such crimes and / or misdemeanors ", he insists.
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