The 56-year-old technician has been facing a growing controversy since Tuesday evening and the publication, by independent journalist Romain Molina and then the media RMC Sports, of an email attributed to the former director of OGC Nice, Julien Fournier, reporting remarks deemed discriminatory by Galtier about part of the Nice dressing room.

This message, which AFP has not been able to authenticate, would have been sent at the end of last season to Dave Brailsford, sports director at Ineos, the petrochemical group owner of the Nice club, to denounce racist and Islamophobic statements in the context of the construction of the squad or the management of the group.

Galtier, who moved from Nice to PSG last summer, "took note with amazement of the insulting and defamatory remarks of Mr. Julien Fournier against him," said his lawyer, Olivier Martin, in a statement sent Wednesday afternoon to AFP.

"Given the seriousness of the accusations against him, which he contests with the utmost firmness, Christophe Galtier immediately seized his lawyer (...) to initiate, without delay, the necessary legal proceedings that are necessary, especially since this disclosure, he has been subjected to threats and intolerable acts of harassment," it said.

Warning of the ultras

Asked, the PSG did not wish to react immediately.

The Collectif Ultras Paris, the main group of supporters, has split for its part of a short text in which it claims to follow "the Galtier case" closely, with this warning: "If the facts of which he is accused are proven, it is not acceptable that this person remains in the organization chart of the club".

"We recall that we have always positioned ourselves against all forms of discrimination and this fight is a historic cause of our turn," write the ultras of the Porte d'Auteuil.

The episode comes at a delicate time for Galtier who, after early eliminations in the Champions League (against Bayern Munich) and Coupe de France (against Marseille), still has to fight to win the Ligue 1 title, with only six points ahead of Lens eight days from the end of the championship.

Under contract until 2024, the former defender is going through a delicate first season on the bench of PSG, the most prestigious of his career after experiences at Saint-Etienne (2009-2017), Lille (2017-2021) and Nice (2021-2022).

Email not denied

On the Côte-d'Azur, the native of Marseille lifted the Aiglons to fifth place in the championship and in the final of the Coupe de France, lost to Nantes. His short tenure, however, was complicated by difficult relations with Julien Fournier.

The former general manager, then director of football of Nice, left the club in July 2022, spoke Wednesday of "differences" with the coach, but denied having leaked the email at the origin of the controversy, without however denying its existence.

"I am currently in Brazil far from this controversy to which I am associated at my expense. I am in no way at the origin of the dissemination of this internal information old a year at the time of my departure from the club," he said in a statement sent to AFP.

"The timing of these revelations revolts me just as much as their content," added the 49-year-old leader, on the eve of the quarter-final first leg of the Europa League Conference between Nice and Basel, Thursday in Switzerland.

Last Saturday, Galtier was the target of insulting chants from the stands of the Allianz Riviera on the occasion of PSG's trip to Nice in the league.

His former striker at Lille, the Turkish Burak Yilmaz, supported him on Wednesday on social networks: "I worked with Galtier and I never perceived the slightest negative behavior on his part because of my religion or my nationality."

© 2023 AFP