Former French skating boss Didier Gailhaguet, forced to resign from the French Ice Sports Federation (FFSG) in February due to a scandal of sexual violence, however refuses to leave the French Olympic Committee, a- he said Wednesday evening in an email obtained by AFP.
“(…) I decided not to resign and to those who would call for my resignation, I simply demand a little decency! ", Launches Gailhaguet at the end of his message, addressed to the forty members of the board of directors of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), including its president Denis Masseglia.
Resignation under duress, he said
"Kind regards to you and see you tomorrow," he concludes, announcing his intention to participate in the board of directors scheduled by videoconference Thursday morning, from 9:30 am, even if he is no longer president of the FFSG.
After a long reign at the head of this federation, which he had chaired since 1998, with the exception of a parenthesis between 2004 and 2007, Didier Gailhaguet had been forced to resign in early February, at 66, under pressure from the Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu. Fifteen days earlier, several former skaters, including Sarah Abitbol in her book "Un si long silence", had accused rape and sexual assault of coaches, including Gilles Beyer.
"Atomic weapon"
Gailhaguet was accused of having kept him in the skating circuit, despite suspicions in 2000, which he again defends himself in the email sent to his colleagues at the CNOSF. “No, I obviously don't intend to let myself be accused without having the opportunity to defend myself. No, of course I do not intend to be the expiatory victim of the obvious dysfunctions of the administration, "he insists.
Didier Gailhaguet adds that he was forced to resign "to preserve my clubs, my leagues and my committees", faced with the threat of withdrawal of approval brandished by Roxana Maracineanu, "the atomic weapon". Three days after Gailhaguet's resignation, the president of the CNOSF, Denis Masseglia, seized the ethics committee of the French Olympic committee, to find out if the former skating boss could be forced to resign.
Did Gailhaguet cover a coach accused of harassment in Nice? via @ 20minutesSport https://t.co/lhS4iD8oZF
- 20 Minutes Sport (@ 20minutesSport) February 7, 2020Unanimous ethics committee response, dated April 14: according to its statutes and even if Didier Gailhaguet is no longer the head of a federation, "the CNOSF cannot unilaterally terminate" his mandate as administrator . The committee nevertheless notes that its maintenance “is likely to harm, on the one hand, the cohesion and the image of the sports movement; on the other hand, to relations between the new leaders of the French Ice Sports Federation and the CNOSF ”.
According to Didier Gailhaguet, the boss of the CNOSF himself "recently asked him to think about resigning from (his) post". A post "to which I have been democratically elected with you", he adds. Gailhaguet was replaced at the head of the FFSG by the former ice dance champion Nathalie Péchalat, elected in mid-March.
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- Sexual violence
- Skating
- CNOSF
- Sport