"I said that two versions were clashing and that a truth was going to come out. It was seen as a position when, for me, at no time was there any question of taking sides. I remained very straight in my statement," Digard said of his first speech Thursday on the ongoing case.
"Now that justice has been seized, and good for us, we have the certainty that a truth will come out. At that time, we may be able to speak. But until then, we will not speak," he added.
Digard then considered that the opening of a preliminary investigation for suspicions of "discrimination based on an alleged race or membership of a religion", announced Friday by the prosecutor of Nice, was "great". "Otherwise, it's the public court ... We see it today and that's terrible," he said.
The storm broke out Tuesday night with the revelation of alleged discriminatory, racist and Islamophobic remarks made by Galtier during his year at the head of OGC Nice (2021-2022).
In an email addressed to the management of the Nice club revealed by the independent journalist Romain Molina then RMC, which AFP could not authenticate, the former director of OGC Nice Julien Fournier, with whom Galtier had an execrable relationship, reported these remarks attributed to the PSG coach: "+He then replied that I had to take into account the reality of the city and that indeed, we could not have so many blacks and Muslims in the team+" and "+He told me of his desire to change the team in depth by also specifying that he wanted to limit as much as possible the number of Muslim players +".
Galtier denies having made such remarks and has filed a complaint.
The justice did not take long to take up this case since a preliminary investigation was opened by the prosecutor's office of Nice. Searches were conducted Friday morning at the headquarters of OGC Nice.
© 2023 AFP