2023-12-16 13:56:39
Christophe Galtier, December 15, 2023 before the Nice court. VALERY HACHE / AFP
The trial lasted the equivalent of eight football matches, twelve hours, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., during which Christophe Galtier drank a lot and sweated at the bar of room no. 3, small and overheated, of the court of Nice. During the 2021-2022 season, the coach, now 57 years old, led the local team to 5th place in Ligue 1. Falling short of the ambitions of the club bought in 2019 by Ineos, a British petrochemical giant. , but honorable given the squad at the time and the turbulence which had shaken OGC Nice behind the scenes throughout the season.
The cold war between Christophe Galtier and sports director Julien Fournier, who brought him to the club, led to the departure of both men, and this conflict has now caused the former coach to face justice. The affair takes place on September 28, 2022, at the microphone of RMC. Two months after being dismissed from his post, Julien Fournier lights the fuse: “If I explain the real reasons why we argued, Christophe will no longer enter a locker room, neither in France nor in Europe. »
The bomb exploded six months later, with the publication of an old email sent by Julien Fournier to the management of the Nice club in May 2022, just before his ouster. This described a racist Christophe Galtier, complaining about the Muslim players in the squad, or believing that we “No [pouvait] not have so many blacks and Arabs on the team”. The Nice public prosecutor’s office immediately opened an investigation, and the person concerned appeared on Friday, December 15, for “moral harassment and discrimination based on belonging to a nation or religion.”
A “speaking file”
The file seemed overwhelming for the defendant, seen from a distance. Seen up close, it is less so. The accusation’s bag deflated somewhat at the hearing, where Christophe Galtier, who had traveled 4,500 kilometers from Qatar where he now works, was unable to confront his accusers: no player, manager or member of the staff who had charged him during the investigation had not deigned to grace the court with his presence.
If the hearing stretched from one end of the day to the other, it is because the vice-president of the court Alain Chemama took the time to read all of the hearings carried out by the investigators within the club. A tedious but enlightening read, which allowed us to understand the case in its nuances and complexity, and from which it emerges that the accusation against Galtier is based entirely on testimonies, and is not supported by any material evidence – email, recording , video, etc. A “speech file”said the prosecutor. “Wind, corridor noises, rumor”said the defense.
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