The Court of Appeal of Orléans (Loiret) will not have been sensitive to the defense of Jacky Fortepaule. Accused of moral and sexual harassment by six employees, four women and two men, he had pleaded the thesis of the conspiracy against him. The judges did not see in him the victim of manipulation and malevolence that he claimed to be. The former president of the Center League was therefore sentenced, on Tuesday, February 14, to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 1,500 euros. That is, the same sentences as those pronounced at first instance by the Orléans judicial court in April 2022. The former manager, now 76 years old, will also have to pay the total sum of 20,000 euros in damages. and interest to the six plaintiffs. Among the former employees, who had filed a complaint for sexual harassment, some had presented eloquent erotic emails to the court.
5 months of investigation and 114 hearings
Finally, the judgment of the Orléans Court of Appeal added an additional penalty: the publication of the conviction in the columns of the daily La République du Center and in the weekly France Football, while the judgment will be posted on a Football Center League panel for two months.
Nothing is going well for the authorities of French football, which are going through one of the most acute crises in its history. This judgment comes the day before the publication of the final audit report of the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (IGESR). After five months of investigation and after 114 hearings, the authors of this audit denounce in particular a “failing federal governance” or a “functioning of the executive committee (which) illustrates a weakness of democratic exercise”. And like Jacky Fortepaule, President of the FFF (French Football Federation), Noël Le Graët, 81, has been targeted since January 16 by a preliminary investigation for “sexual and moral harassment”.