Former professional tennis player Gilles Moretton was elected new president of the French Tennis Federation on Saturday This change comes in the midst of a health crisis linked to Covid-19 which makes the accounting situation difficult for all federations.
Former professional tennis player Gilles Moretton, 63, was elected the new president of the French Tennis Federation on Saturday at the end of the general assembly of the body, announced the FFT.
Moretton, chosen by the electorate, thus succeeds Bernard Giudicelli who will therefore only have served one four-year term at the head of the richest sports federation in France (budget of EUR 325 million).
This change comes at the end of a tense campaign, in which Giudicelli and Moretton were the only two protagonists.
It is also intervening in the midst of a health crisis linked to Covid-19, which makes the accounting situation difficult for all federations.
The richest sports federations
In 2019, the FFT relied on a budget of 325 million euros, which made it by far the richest French federation.
Of this total, 255.4 million euros come from Roland-Garros.
However, in 2020, with the Covid-19 pandemic, ticketing was reduced to 3% of what it usually represents.
Obviously, there was a financial impact that the director general of the FFT Jean-François Vilotte had estimated "at 80 to 100 million euros", stressing that the accounts were "more or less balanced."
The new president is a rarity in the history of the FFT: he is a former high-level player, even if he readily describes himself as "a player at the level nothing exceptional".
Of the fifteen presidents that the FFT has known since 1920, only four have played in Grand Slam tournaments and defended the colors of France in the Davis Cup: René Lacoste, Marcel Bernard, Philippe Chatrier and therefore Gilles Moretton.