the Federation under pressure after a report from Anticor

Lhe French Tennis Federation (FFT) is bogged down in legal troubles and finds itself under more pressure than ever. After a complaint for “corruption” and “misappropriation of property”, concerning in particular the Roland-Garros ticket office, the Anticor association also made a report to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), we learned on Tuesday April 11 source close to the case. A month and a half before Roland-Garros (May 28-June 11), the FFT is only sinking a little deeper into the crisis. A storm that could also splash the current sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, former director general of the Federation.

On March 16, a complaint against X was filed by executives and former leaders of the FFT for “misappropriation of property” and “corruption”. The plaintiffs accuse the current president of the FFT Gilles Moretton, elected on February 13, 2021, and two of his relatives, the current treasurer Jean-Luc Barrière and his former chief of staff Hugues Cavallin, of having “organized the embezzlement of Roland-Garros tournament tickets to the detriment of the FFT” and to have “exempted themselves from the consequences of their misdeeds”. This complaint and then the report of Anticor, filed on March 22, revealed by Mediapart and which AFP was able to consult, “are still being analyzed”, specified the PNF, requested by AFP.

“Stinky Balls”

In its report, the anti-corruption association notes the same facts as those contained in the complaint. These are ticket resales, illegal according to them, operated by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (AURA) tennis league (chaired from 2018 to 2021 by Gilles Moretton) and by the Paris committee (directed by Jean-Luc Barrière , now treasurer of the FFT).

The Parisian committee is notably suspected of having resold forty tickets for the 2019 edition of the Roland-Garros tournament “to the company AS Events”, a company whose companion Hugues Cavallin, former president of the Paris committee until 2017 , “owns 50% of the shares,” according to Anticor.

READ ALSOForehands and low blows at the French Tennis FederationAnticor also mentions, like the complainants, the coinage of 80 tickets by the AURA League, then chaired by Gilles Moretton, within the framework of partnership contracts entered into with sponsors in exchange for these premium tickets for the 2020 Roland-Garros edition. However, these practices were no longer permitted since September 2017 according to Anticor, recalling that after this date, “only the FFT could now proceed to the sale of its places” and that the regional leagues could certainly buy them “to manage their public relations – “offer them in order to promote the development of their public relations”, specifies the association -, but not to “sell them to third parties”.

An analysis that the president of the FFT does not share, who, if he recognizes having sold places in commercial packages for the 2020 edition, refutes with AFP any irregularity, and speaks of “stink balls” at the subject of these cases.

Gilles Moretton argues that “all the Leagues had the authorization to sell places in public relations packages, to partners” until a vote of the General Assembly of the FFT in December 2019.

“The Leagues had the right to sell places received by the FFT or to do their own “Public Relations”, but they did not have the right to resell them in “packaging (places, restaurants, reception…)” integrated into partnership contracts,” explains a former FFT executive.

Anticor also suggests to the PNF to look into the conditions under which Gilles Moretton’s former chief of staff, Hugues Cavallin, first hired on the list of outgoing president Bernard Giudicelli, made the decision to finally support at the last moment. of the campaign the list of Gilles Moretton, “a decisive support”, writes Anticor.

For the association, if this support was negotiated in return for the appointment of Hugues Cavallin as chief of staff (February 2021-May 2022) of the president of the FFT, “such an agreement could characterize the offense of corruption” .

“First Class Burial”

The ex-treasurer was also the subject, like Gilles Moretton, of a referral to the Disputes Committee by Bernard Giudicelli about possible illegal ticket sales.

Five days after the election of Gilles Moretton, an Executive Committee in which the current Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, then DG of the FFT, took part, definitively put an end to the procedure by a vote “unanimously “, according to the minutes consulted by AFP. This vote is problematic, according to the president of Anticor, Élise Van Beneden, who mentioned in Mediapart “a first-class funeral”.

READ ALSOAmélie Oudéa-Castéra of Roland-Garros at the Ministry of SportsTo date, no inspection mission has been launched by Matignon (it is the Prime Minister who oversees the FFT, and not the Ministry of Sports by virtue of a decree issued in the summer of 2022 holding account of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra’s transition to the general management of the FFT). Questioned Tuesday morning on the sidelines of a trip, the latter also recalled being legally unable to comment on these cases.

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