The presidency of the French Tennis Federation (FFT), requested by its ethics committee, proposed to withdraw the choice of players selected for the France team from the captain of the Blues Sébastien Grosjean, to avoid possible conflicts of interest, according to a statement released on Monday.
“After comparing Mr. Grosjean’s duties as captain with his interests resulting from various outside activities (…), the Committee concluded that certain situations of interference constituting ‘conflicts of interest’ existed”, wrote the FFT in this release.
Davis Cup
Pique strikes back and claims 45 million euros from the ITF
06/22/2023 At 12:02 PM
Apart from his cap as captain of the French men’s team, Sébastien Grosjean is also director of the Open Sud de France tournament and consultant for the beIN Sports television channel. But he is also co-founder and shareholder of Tennium, a tournament organizing agency and representative of players, in particular Richard Gasquet, who is also a shareholder of Tennium, and Arthur Fils.
It is this last function which could mainly influence the selection process for the Davis Cup and for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, according to the ethics committee. “The committee is of the opinion that the restrictions contractually provided for, no more than the reputation of Mr. Grosjean, are not enough to eliminate the conflicts of interest identified”, according to the press release from the FFT.
Richard Gasquet and Sébastien Grosjean during France – Czech Republic during the 2021 edition of the Davis Cup
Credit: Getty Images
The FFT wants to integrate Escudé and Mathieu in the selection of players
Among several options to “neutralize these conflicts of interest”, the FFT, requested by the committee, therefore suggested removing Grosjean from the “player selection process”, so that the choice of players is “made after consultation with the national technical director and the high-level director of the FFT”, respectively Nicolas Escudé and Paul-Henri Mathieu.
The ethics committee also spoke out on the wave of a hundred layoffs of employees, notably revealed by Médiapart, judging it “disproportionate” and recalled that it “belongs to the present and future teams at the head of the FFT to do everything possible to ensure that changes in governance have only a limited impact on employees”.
In another case, the committee also described as “undesirable ‘mixture of genres'” the course of the wedding party of the current president, elected in early 2021, Gilles Moretton. In mid-June, a complaint for corruption and misappropriation of property targeting the French Tennis Federation (FFT) and concerning the Roland-Garros ticket office had been dismissed.
The plaintiffs accused President Gilles Moretton 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 “exonerated themselves from the consequences of their misdeeds”.
Davis Cup
Nadal back this year in the Davis Cup? “Even without being 100%, he transmits a lot”
06/16/2023 At 4:26 PM
Davis Cup
The Blues will play Great Britain, Switzerland and Australia in Manchester
03/29/2023 At 2:40 PM
2023-07-10 16:30:00
#Davis #Cup #FFT #proposes #withdraw #choice #players #captain #Grosjean #conflicts #interest
