End of game for Claude Atcher. One of the figures of French rugby at the origin of obtaining the World Cup in France in 2023 sees his dismissal as general manager of the organization confirmed following the vote of an extraordinary board of directors, such as the announces Tuesday the organizing committee. She signs her exit after the denunciation of a social climate “extremely degraded”.
“Meeting in an extraordinary session on Monday, the board of directors of the Public Interest Group (GIP) France 2023 was informed by its president Jacques Rivoal of the conclusions of the Labor Inspectorate mission seized the day after the publication, on June 22, a press article on the social climate within the Organizing Committee of the Rugby World Cup France 2023 and on the management of its general manager”detail the organizers.
The revelations of the newspaper L’Equipe at the end of June through a long investigation relating the malaise at work due to “management by terror” of Claude Atcher in the instance will have been fatal to the one who had already been at the helm of the 2007 World Cup in France.
Immediately afterwards, the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, had requested referral to the Labor Inspectorate as well as to the ethics committee of the GIP in which the French Rugby Federation (FFR) is in the majority (more than 60%). and the state, a minority.
Collette at the helm
Delivered this summer, the report of the ethics committee mentioned “alarming managerial practices”. At the beginning of September, he led the Ministry of Sports, in concert with the FFR and the French Olympic Committee, which also sits on the GIP, to lay off Claude Atcher as a precautionary measure pending the investigation by the Labor Inspectorate. .
The conclusions of the latter, which were expected in September, have not been made public but could, if infringements have been observed, lead to legal developments. Claude Atcher “Hung on all summer” to keep his job, explained a source familiar with the matter to AFP.
Before the summer, a joint mission by the General Inspectorate of Finance and the General Inspectorate for Higher Education and Research had also been announced, in particular to “analyze the existence of any breaches of economic and financial probity or conflicts of interest” ow be you GIP.
Furthermore, according to a source familiar with the case, the “Campus 2023” apprenticeship program, which trains apprentices in the context of the World Cup, is currently being scrutinized by the State services, because, according to this spring, “he would not be in the nails legally”.
Claude Atcher, former third line, 66, also appeared in September before the Paris Criminal Court for “concealment of breach of trust” alongside the President of the French Federation (FFR) Bernard Laporte for having perceived with his Score XV of undue sums from 2017, when he was piloting France’s candidacy for the World Cup. Two years in prison, one of which was suspended, were requested against him. Judgment was reserved on December 13.