“When I think about it, I’m ashamed…” After two and a half years of Gilles Moretton’s mandate at the head of the FFT, this former campaign advisor almost regrets having participated in the election of the former player at the helm of the richest and one of the most powerful French federations. Over the months, the strong man from Lyon has raised the level of his omnipotence and crystallized a lot of resentment. “His predecessor (Bernard Giudicelli) wanted to take care of everything, even if it meant sometimes being blinded by a few high-sounding names that flattered his ego,” summarizes an opponent. Moretton considers that with his past, he knows everything about everything and that’s it. »
Latest examples to date, the move of the Rolex Paris Masters planned to Paris La Défense Arena in 2025 or the captaincy of the Davis Cup. The former world No. 65 thus proceeds alone to choose Sébastien Grosjean’s successor. He spoke to the players concerned, solicited 14 candidates himself (or via his secretary) who were sometimes improbable given their reports and the validation of the lucky one elected at the next executive committee on November 17 should only be a formality.
Statutorily, it is up to the DTN to propose a name. But the incumbent… is on sick leave for three weeks. In mid-September, Nicolas Escudé was offered a nice cupboard with a refocusing on the training of young people and the loss of the high level in favor of the duo Ivan Ljubicic and Paul-Henri Mathieu, the latter also being tipped to become captain.
The competence of the Croatian, former mentor of Federer and whose annual emoluments as a service provider would be around 300,000 euros, does not need to be demonstrated. But his relationship with national coaches is by no means obvious… Already singled out for brutal management having led to a wave of departures from the FFT (more than 140 to date) and a few industrial tribunal cases (including three filed a few days ago), Moretton distinguished himself at the start of the week by perjuring himself before the commission of inquiry relating to the identification of operational failures within the sports movement.
Under oath, the boss of blue-white-red tennis mixed his rackets by minimizing the salary of his ex-CEO who became minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra or by evoking the purchase (a bit overvalued) of a staff apartment by the FFT in Boulogne-Billancourt (to the children of the director of the Strasbourg tournament).
The opposition remains discreet
Above all, he asserted with confidence that the investigation opened by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) for corruption and misappropriation of property had been closed without further action while the Paris Court of Appeal has just requested a new one. The commission is awaiting the conclusions of an ongoing study to know whether it is appropriate to prosecute the president of the FFT for “perjury”. But only the judicial aspect relating to corruption seems capable of shaking Moretton, elected until the end of 2024.
To put it simply, the seven opponents who filed a complaint suspect an illicit agreement between the former leader of Asvel and Hugues Cavallin, general treasurer during the previous mandate and former president of the Paris Committee, whose surprise rallying had tipped the election. Cavallin was then paid for fifteen months as chief of staff before resigning and the executive committee of the FFT quickly put an end to an internal procedure concerning the resale of Roland-Garros places by the Paris Committee to the company. Cavallin’s partner’s event…
Moretton has great quality. He is never short of ideas to stir up discontent. One of the latest, that of remunerating the presidents of the League, or even of the committee, has raised some eyebrows, even among its supporters. The idea of paying “volunteers” 4,000 or 4,500 euros per month had a lot of difficulty getting through and helped motivate the opposition, including within the executive committee itself. But for the moment this remains very discreet for fear of coming up a little short at the net. Former players (some of whom were asked for the captaincy!) are already participating in the development of a roadmap for the 2024 elections.
Image-wise, the FFT is not really helped by the results of French players on the circuit. And among the apprentice champions, the most prominent elements for the moment are… a Russian and a Lebanese. Ksenia Efremova and Daniel Jade, both 14, were naturalized in recent months. “The only area in which Moretton can strut is the number of licensees,” whispers one of its detractors. The federation has returned above a million with the help of licenses padel which inflate the figures a little. »
2023-11-03 18:59:00
#Tennis #Gilles #Moretton #omnipotent #president
