Gwenaëlle Noury claims to have been pressured by the former president of the FFSG, Didier Gailhaguet.
The president of the French Federation of Ice Sports (FFSG), Gwenaëlle Noury, who has just ousted six members of the executive board, claims to have suffered “pressures» and « intimidationfrom former president Didier Gailhaguet in an interview published Friday on the website ofObs.
During her election in June 2022, she had been strongly suspected – in particular by the outgoing candidate Nathalie Péchalat – of being remotely guided by Didier Gailhaguet, forced to resign in the spring of 2020 for having covered a trainer implicated for and ault .
“I never imagined finding such a catastrophic and corrupt universe. I discovered that people wanted the return to the governance of the last 25 years (…)“, she explains to the weekly. Didier Gailhaguet has “quickly showed the will to lead the federation. It became very oppressive, especially since it was supported by a whole network, in particular certain members of the executive office and of the federal council identified“, she says.
“I was to be his puppet, in any case he believed that I was (…). There was intimidation, blackmail, red lines were crossed“, she added. “The six people dismissed were because they defended this system” and wanted to “see it return to the controls“. Among them, the ex-champion Brian Joubert, reputed to be close to the former president. These six members denounced on Wednesday “a surreal situation“.
Ms. Noury also clarified on Friday that “the door to his office was broken open» and that she had «lodged a complaint“. She also recounts “pressures“for the FFSG to pay tribute to Gilles Beyer, the former coach whom Sarah Abitbol accuses of , recently deceased, which for her was”out of the question“. The ex-skater, who wanted to join the long-standing federation, “has just accepted to join the ethics committee of the federation“, did she say.
Contacted several times in recent months by AFP, including before her election, Ms. Noury has never followed up and almost never speaks publicly.
For example, it had not explained the reason for the ousting of its secretary general, the former water ski champion Patrice Martin, in October 2022. The latter had accused the head of the federation of “cronyism” and D'”between oneself“, considering that “many peoplewere still in contact with Didier Gailhaguet.
The FFSG was the subject of an inspection carried out by the Ministry of Sports, in particular on administrative and financial management, but also intended to verify that there was not a de facto leader, AFP had learned from source familiar with the matter this fall.
The report of this inspection has not yet been sent to her, affirms Ms. Noury, who also affirms that the decision taken to exclude six people from the office “is not a sign of submission to the Ministry of Sports“.