The surveys published in February by RMC Sport and Mediapart had set fire to the powder. The latter lifted the veil on the atmosphere within the French Tennis Federation, affected by many departures. Budgetary excesses within governance were also mentioned. This Monday, RMC Sport announces that a complaint would have been filed by executives of the Federation. They accuse the FFT of embezzlement of public property and corruption.
A complaint received and which will soon be studied by the PNF (National Financial Prosecutor’s Office), confirms the instance to Parisian. Several leaders would have had enough of the lack of transparency around the management of the body’s finances. This prompted them to file a complaint. The climate within the FFT would be very toxic, with an atmosphere of “permanent malaise”. Since the election of Gilles Moretton as president in 2021, departures have multiplied.
Governance pointed out
According to RMC Sport, 130 of the Federation’s 400 employees left in two years. A dynamic embodied by the director general, Caroline Flaissier, responsible for “cleaning up”, according to a former federal executive. Several sources also testify to a deleterious climate, marked by meetings where “some leaders are humiliated in public, even insulting language”. The president would refuse for his part “any debate after his interventions”.
At the end of February, Gilles Moretton had refuted these accusations in a letter to the members of the Superior Council of Tennis. “I bring the strongest denial to these accusations. These reflect a profound ignorance not only of the facts, but also of the way in which the FFT works, and a desire to harm our Federation. I would like to reaffirm it with force: our organization acts, in all circumstances, in total respect for the law and labor law, with respect for people and in coherence with the values of sport, which are dear to us. »