Nathalie Péchalat, here during a day for the Premiers de cordée association in May 2018, was elected president of the French Ice Sports Federation, March 14, 2020. -
ISA HARSIN / SIPA
A year ago, Sarah Abitbol's revelations panicked the skating world and weakened the Ice Sports Federation (FFSG).
Nathalie Péchalat, new president of the body, has worked hard to regain the confidence of the Ministry of Sports.
Volunteer on the issue of sexual violence, the new governance has not always succeeded in showing empathy with the victims publicly.
It seems that it has become a little game in the corridors of the Federation of Ice Sports, rue de Reuilly.
Guess where the next anonymous letter will come from, timely sent to all the mailboxes that matter.
The last is paid Nathalie Péchalat.
The new president is criticized, in flowery terms and not always well written, for being more interested in the promotion of her book than in the management of a bleeding federation, like others, by the loss of licensees .
It would be good in the Gailhaguet style, we joke internally.
"He likes to catch snakes with other people's hands, that's his thing."
The doubt exists, all the same.
Already, the former owner of the place has an irreproachable spelling, then, it happens to him to sign his own missives.
Thus, last September, a fiery email sent to a number of club presidents before the large general assembly validating the new statutes, aimed at nipping in the bud a flagship reform of the new governance.
The limitation to three presidential terms, a way to nail Gailhaguet's coffin a little harder, then prevented from returning for good.
“Thank you to all of you for being here, thank you for your enthusiasm and your confidence.
This result encourages us to continue working hard, in the right direction and all together! ”
rejoiced Nathalie Péchalat after the approval of the new statutes of the FFSG pic.twitter.com/6Y1XUK3TxR
- FFSG (@ffsportsdeglace) October 11, 2020
The overhaul of the statutes, an essential step towards standardization
An attempt to return quickly aborted: 83% for, good evening at home M'sieur Gailhaguet.
This vote marks a turning point in the crisis that the FFSG is going through since the revelations of Sarah Abitbol, Hélène Godard, or Anne Bruneteaux on sexual violence committed in recent decades.
"We were afraid that it would not pass, or that it would pass very fairly, and there it legitimized in a certain way the new direction", welcomes a member of the federal committee.
Not just a satisfaction for the ego.
With these new statutes, the FFSG has finally got into the nails of the Ministry of Sports.
Eleven articles have been completely revised to bring the texts into conformity with the law.
"A crazy job, 14 hours a day, to do in six months what we usually succeed in a year", explains one within the executive office.
Some glorious elders of the Gailhaguet era got involved without gibbering, which may have made some teeth cringe.
The federation is justified: “There were no more archives, nothing, the commissions could no longer function legally.
Everything had to be rebuilt from scratch, nothing could have been done without them, even if Nathalie cleaned up ”.
The ministry has not withdrawn the accreditation
The allies most involved in the Ice Age were indeed asked to look elsewhere, starting with the lifelong assistant Sylvie Pucini, and the inescapable Guy Paris.
The historical lawyer of the FFSG, gone to war in court like his former boss, was moved in a letter (decidedly), blaming the ministry for having demanded his hoe on a pike.
What the latter denies en bloc, obviously, even if Roxana Maracineanu did not take a negative view of certain departures.
The ministry has also lifted the threat of withdrawal of approval that hung over the FFSG, the famous "atomic weapon", which actually amounted to cutting off the water supply.
A little more than a million blocked subsidies, for a federation which depends at 30% on the contribution of the State.
However, there remains a second general inspection, after the one which led to the indictment for physical or sexual violence of about twenty coaches last summer, this time on the financial side of federal management.
Its conclusions are expected in the coming weeks.
Abitbol feels abandoned by Péchalat
If she did not bow down on everything, refusing for example to follow up on nine of the fifteen remarks sent by the Ministry of Sports before the vote of the new statutes, Nathalie Péchalat seems to have done the hard part: give pledges to the supervisory authority to regain some autonomy, while keeping away the specter of a Faustian pact with whom you know, even if the two were able to speak to each other once or twice last spring.
Damien Boyer-Gibaud, who had approached the CNOSF to complain about irregularities during the election of Péchalat, buried the war tomahawk for the moment: "It seems to me premature to take stock in a health context which prevents us to keep our sports going normally.
The time will perhaps come to comment on certain decisions, but the time is not for controversy.
We must remain united and defend the interests of our federation above all ”.
We barely hear certain criticisms “off” on a form of apparent distance when we approach the central question of sexual violence.
Sarah Abitbol, the one who started it all, the one who still receives dozens of emails every week from victims to whom she gave the courage to speak, deplores a federal abandonment.
"I lifted the lid and I have the impression of paying it, regrets the former champion in a recent interview granted to the
Republican East
.
I thought that we would rely on my unfortunate experience to put things in place.
But deep down, I think I have the answer.
The Federation wants to move on and no longer talk about the story of Sarah Abitbol because they think that I have dirty skating ”.
"There is a lack of a human side in daily management"
Embarrassed at the backbones, the Péchalat camp refutes the idea of scrapping.
"How could anyone blame him for talking?"
There is no problem with Sarah, moreover Nathalie has personally communicated to her in writing everything the Federation has done on the subject of sexual violence ”.
So what exactly is stuck?
The low number of paid positions within the FFSG?
Abitbol's lack of enthusiasm to join the Federal Council like Philippe Candeloro, who stands for later?
The author of "Un si long silence", exiled in Miami, would also have liked to be able to skate on the Place des Français Volants during confinement thanks to her state certificate, but she was told that it was a reserved privilege only to top athletes.
Galas with his daughter?
Pushed back because of the health crisis.
The coaching diploma?
It is on the side of the Ministry of Sports that we have to go knocking, and the job is not glamorous every day.
This does not prevent some from regretting that Nathalie Péchalat did not have a word for the victims at the opening of the last general assembly, at least for the symbol.
“Nathalie is an excellent manager, but it is sure that the human side is a little lacking in part because of the health crisis, recognizes Didier Lucine, one of her most fervent supporters.
We do not see anyone, everything is done by email or phone, community life needs more personal exchanges to function well ”.
The new patron of the Federation replies that she prefers actions: the establishment of an ethics committee, the presence of a contact person to report all cases of sexual violence to the relevant cell of the ministry, the editorial staff an accommodation charter for groupings and travel, or full involvement as a civil party in all matters that concern FFSG coaches.
An internal referent on sexual violence
This will be the case in the Gilles Beyer case, indicted in early January for “assault and sexual harassment”.
The alleged rapist of Sarah Abitbol had taken refuge behind the absence of a license to escape a heavy internal sanction during his passage before the disciplinary commission of the Federation, last July.
A legal loophole from another time, made impossible by the adoption of the new statutes.
“I had a lot of pleasure working with Nathalie Péchalat, judge Francis Fontanié, historic member of the executive committee, now retired.
Under his modern, determined and energetic presidency, the FFSG is on the way to becoming an exemplary federation from all points of view ”.
It's never too late.
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