While at the beginning of February, Mediapart denounced “an unprecedented social hemorrhage” at the French Tennis Federation, with in particular the “voluntary or forced departures of 112 employees out of 400”, President Gilles Moretton reacts this Friday in the columns of the newspaper l’ Crew. If he admits many departures, justified in particular by “a profound transformation of the federation”, he defends himself from using brutal methods.
“In total there were, it’s true, ten or eleven dismissals for misconduct and serious misconduct (…), he underlines. There was a change in management and perhaps, on the part of some, a feeling of harshness. That’s really not the goal. We try to make things better. But brutal methods? Quite frankly, I don’t think so. »
In its investigation, Mediapart evoked “several brutal or expeditious dismissals” and quoted in particular a leader speaking of “a real purge”. Moretton says he assumes “without any problem having to separate from certain people”, but believes he is doing it “in the rules of the art. »
“I know how I am: demanding and ambitious for the federation, but I am not what is described in the press”, insists the leader, while the federation has been targeted for a few days by a complaint for “misappropriation of property public and corruption”, which according to the Team would notably target a system of resale of Roland-Garros tickets, between 2018 and 2020, within the league of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, then chaired by Moretton. He believes he has complied with the rules. “I will not allow a climate of slander to settle in the federation,” he insists.