Nicolas Escudé won his case. This Monday, the Paris industrial tribunal declared the dismissal of the former national technical director of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) null and void and ordered the FFT to pay him nearly 850,000 euros in compensation.
The country’s second sports federation, which appointed Nicolas Escudé in March 2021 before notifying him of his dismissal in 2024, will notably have to pay more than 330,000 euros for “violation of the employment guarantee commitment” and 180,000 euros for “nullity of the dismissal”, according to the judgment communicated Monday to AFP and subject to appeal. The FFT will also have to pay 80,000 euros to its former national technical director for “moral harassment” and the same sum for “professional and economic damage”.
The Paris industrial tribunal finally ordered the FFT to pay 81,386.55 euros to Nicolas Escudé as “compensation for notice”, and 50,000 euros for “moral, social and family damage”. She finally orders the body chaired by Gilles Moretton “to submit the end of contract documents, without penalty”.
Escudé on sick leave before his dismissal
Nicolas Escudé contested in particular a reorganization of the DTN which took place in September 2023. At the time, the management had been split into two poles. The first, entitled “path to high level” and dedicated to young people aged 5 to 15, was entrusted to Nicolas Escudé while the “high level” pole (16 to 21 years old) was placed under the joint responsibility of Paul-Henri Mathieu and Ivan Ljubicic. A reorganization which emptied the function of DTN of its substance, according to the former player who was then placed on sick leave before being fired in 2024.
During a hearing before the industrial tribunal in October, FFT lawyer Méline Duperray considered that the contract signed by Nicolas Escudé did not include any guarantee of employment. “Nicolas Escudé is not a civil servant, there is no implicit obligation to guarantee employment. We can put an end to his functions as DTN,” insisted Mr. Duperray in comments reported by the media L’Informé.
