On November 10, 2022, L’Équipe indicated that the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), recipient of a report from the two General Inspections commissioned by the Ministry of Sports, had opened a preliminary investigation on October 19 targeting offenses of favoritism, taking illegal interest, or even other related crimes, attributable to the former general director of GIP 2023 Claude Atcher.
These investigations followed the publication in L’Équipe, on July 12, 2022, of a long article concerning certain alleged financial abuses of the boss of the World Cup organizing committee, who had also just been dismissed in October 2022 from his position due to managerial methods deemed toxic.
In this week’s edition, Le Canard chainé indicates that Claude Atcher was interviewed on Tuesday by the gendarmes of the Paris Research Section, responsible for the investigation. According to our information, Mr. Atcher was taken into custody on Tuesday. Police custody was lifted this Wednesday. The former boss of the GIP is suspected of favoritism and illegal taking of interests, in an investigation which is particularly interested in a dozen markets and questionable practices linked to ticketing.
Among the disputed markets is, as mentioned by Le Canard chainé based on the report of the General Inspectors, that concerning “communication, set at 504,000 euros and won under suspicious conditions by the company Protocole chaired by Xavier Couture, partner of (Bernard) Laporte elsewhere.” Also in the viewfinder, the sports coaching market passed by the GIP, the existence of which we revealed in July 2022, for an amount of 89,000 euros and entrusted to Be On Coaching, a company employing the son of Claude Atcher.
