Paris (AFP)

The president of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) Bernard Giudicelli, implicated in a case of false diploma, told AFP on Thursday that he was the victim of "defamation" and of a double translation error of his CV.

According to the Mediapart website on Thursday, Mr. Giudicelli produced a CV when applying for a position with the International Federation (ITF) indicating that he had a doctorate in economics while a few years earlier his CV indicated that 'he held a license, which is therefore lower.

The theft of a diploma is punishable by a fine to prison.

It is therefore a "serious accusation" but based on "erroneous information", believes Mr. Giudicelli.

"This false allegation is based exclusively on a CV published on the agenda of the 2019 General Assembly of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and of which I am not the author," said Mr. Giudicelli in a statement to AFP.

"In fact, on May 24, 2019, I sent the ITF an application form for the post of member of the board of this organization, under the terms of which I indicated to be + Graduate economist - Aix-Marseille University 1980+, as a translation of the DESS in economics which I hold, ”explains the manager.

"This document is the only one that I sent to the ITF in support of my application. It is from the information contained in the application form that the CV attached to the order was drawn up. of the day of the 2019 General Assembly, "he says.

In this 2019 CV, the expression + Graduate economist + was translated by the ITF "into a doctorate that I never claimed to have. It therefore clearly contains an error of understanding and translation", he emphasizes adding that "in the same context, the opposite error was made in 2015, when the same DESS diploma was wrongly translated as corresponding to a + license in economics +, a diploma lower than DESS."

Candidates' CVs are translated by the ITF into several languages ​​for members of the international organization.

This controversy comes a few weeks before the election of the president of the FFT, postponed to February 13, 2021, where Mr. Giudicelli faces a list led by former player Gilles Moretton.

Questioning "opponents of the (leading) team currently in place", the outgoing president of the FFT believes that we wanted to "achieve (his) honor and (his) reputation" and intends to seize "the criminal jurisdiction on the basis of defamation ".

© 2020 AFP