- The practice of blood tests in search of pregnancy within the Nantes Atlantique Handball (NAHB) is disputed.
- The president of the club and certain players affirm that these tests were not carried out without consent.
- Six Nantes players now claim the opposite.
A big paving stone in the pond. Three days after the case concerning the pregnancy tests carried out within the Nantes Atlantique Handball (NAHB), six players of the Nantes professional team published this Sunday an open letter in order to contest the official version given by the club in conference of hurry. Surrounded by eight players and the coach, President Arnaud Ponroy said Friday that the young women had all been informed by the doctor of the existence of hormonal analyzes in search of pregnancy in addition to the usual blood samples.
A line of defense confirmed that day by the international Camille Ayglon and the captain Léa Lisnières, the latter conceding only that there could have been "a problem of understanding for some" players. But this point of view was clearly not shared by the entire workforce.
"We were not specifically informed"
"First of all, we would like to clarify that on Friday, half of the team deliberately refused to attend the club's press conference, in disagreement with the version that was going to be exposed, and that other players present at the were not in agreement with it either, "begins the open letter distributed by the association of professional handball players (AJPH).
The text then adds: "We only wish to say that we were not specifically informed that the biological tests that we went to do, included a blood pregnancy test. It is not our role to know whether it is illegal or not, but we simply wished to have been informed beforehand and to have been able to give our consent. "
"So that no other woman has to relive that"
“By denouncing this practice, we hope that an awareness is made so that no other player, so that no other woman has to experience this again in the context of her work, that she be athletic or not ”, conclude the six signatories, who wished to preserve their anonymity.
After this missive, the atmosphere within the club, which will face Fleury in the French Cup next Friday, promises to be uncomfortable to say the least.
President Arnaud Ponroy said on Friday that he supported the doctor who performed the tests, a liberal practitioner who is also a maternity referent for high-level sport in Pays-de-la-Loire. He also said that "neither the coaches nor the managers" had access to the medical information.
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