After a complaint filed against X on March 16 with the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) for “embezzlement of public property” and “corruption” by seven executives or former leaders of the French Tennis Federation, Anticor, the French anti-corruption agency, has she also made a report on March 24 to the PNF.
In the sights of the association, a system of illegal resale of Roland-Garros tickets which essentially targets Gilles Moretton (president of the FFT and former president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes League) and Hugues Cavallin (ex-boss of the League of Paris and ex-chief of staff of Moretton).
What are we talking about ?
The case revolves around a system of resale of seats for Roland-Garros by the regional leagues while only the official platform of the FFT has been authorized since 2017 (with redefinition of the ban in 2019) to trade in precious sesames . “Until 2017, the sale of tickets was managed by two entities, either by the regional leagues or by the FFT, explains to the team Élise Van Beneden, president of Anticor. It was decided on September 29, 2017 by the FFT’s Executive Committee (Comex) that only the FFT could now proceed with the sale of these seats. Consequently, the sale of these tickets by a natural or legal person other than the FFT was illegal. »
The Leagues therefore had the possibility of acquiring places as a priority for their public relations, but without trading them. Of the 18 leagues, 5 are believed to have crossed the lines. And 2 to have more widely crossed them: the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes league (then headed by Moretton) and the Paris Committee (chaired at the time by Cavallin). The Aura league would have “monetized” 80 places against sponsorship contracts for the 2020 edition and the Paris Committee would have resold tickets via an event company whose shareholder was the companion of Hugues Cavallin… Moretton claims to have acted legally and transparently.
Was there a “corrupt pact”?
In 2020, an internal audit of the FFT points to the legal and ethical risks of the actions of the regional leagues. In the middle of the election campaign, on November 13, 2020, Bernard Giudicelli, current president, seized the FFT’s disputes commission to alert it to the two cases. A few weeks earlier, Cavallin, a Giudicelli stalwart, retired from the campaign and then left his position as treasurer of the federation.
At the time of the vote, the Paris Committee, the largest department in France which he led for eleven years and where he remains very present, overwhelmingly chooses Moretton (81%), definitively tipping the election. “Cavallin was the X factor, we are told at the time in the entourage of the beaten. Otherwise, projections show Moretton would have lost around 52/48…”
The seven plaintiffs see in the reversal of Cavallin (who then became Moretton’s chief of staff until May 2022) a “corrupt pact”, arguing that his rallying to the former Davis Cup player could have been negotiated in exchange for the abandonment of any legal proceedings. On February 13, 2021, Gilles Moretton was officially elected head of the FFT. Five days later, the first Comex of his mandate unanimously put an end to the internal procedure aimed at Cavallin. The Disputes Committee will therefore never rule on the subject…
“It is up to justice to say whether a corrupt pact could have been concluded between Mr. Moretton and Mr. Cavallin, continues Élise Van Beneden. But what is certain is that Mr. Cavallin had a good interest in the new president of the FFT putting an end to the procedure which was aimed at him, which was not the intention of his predecessor. »
Why does this concern the Minister of Sports?
The turbulence that agitates the FFT is also causing a stir on the side of the Ministry of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Entering the government on May 20, 2022 in place of Roxana Maracineanu, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra is indeed the former director general of the federation. Even before being appointed to this position (March 5, 2021), the former world 251st, No. 5 on the “Together for another tennis” list, took part in the now famous Comex which brought together 18 members and three invited on February 18, 2021.
The minister was therefore one of the 10 voters in favor of the withdrawal of referrals against Hugues Cavallin (Moretton had already left the session at the time of the vote). “The proposal to end this investigation was not even on the agenda but was voted on during “various questions”, which is unacceptable, blows Élise Van Beneden. The current Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, voted in favor of this first class burial. »
The legal developments of the complaint could therefore put AOC in the embarrassment. And come back like a boomerang at a time when the minister (subject to a duty of reserve concerning her favorite discipline) is part of a major clean-up in many federations (rugby, football, etc.).