A board of directors of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) meets on Thursday in the midst of a crisis around its president, Brigitte Henriques.
An endless crisis. Less than a year and a half before the opening of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) is embroiled in an endless internal conflict. The current president, Brigitte Henriques, who succeeded Denis Masseglia in June 2021, says she is the victim of a “insistent campaign of destabilization” led according to her by her predecessor and her former secretary general, Didier Séminet, from whom she separated in September 2022. Accompanied by her lawyer, Brigitte Henriques had wished, Tuesday April 4, that “it stops”.
This Thursday, April 13, the body’s board of directors is meeting. A first step towards a return to calm? Back in five dates on the crisis that is shaking the Olympic body and its president.
September 12, 2022: Brigitte Henriques lands her ex-right arm and files a complaint
After months of conflicting relationships, Brigitte Henriques decided, on September 12, 2022, to separate from Didier Séminet, her secretary general. Never in the history of the CNOSF has a president separated from his general secretary. A divorce at the origin of a war of clans.
A week later, she filed a complaint against her ex-right-hand man for “psychological abuse”. The former vice-president of the French Football Federation (FFF), between 2017 and 2021, details several meetings and exchanges spread over several months with her secretary general who have “shocked”, evoking once a behavior “threatening”, and ensures to live enough “mal” the situation.
Didier Séminet responds on November 8 by filing a complaint in turn against Brigitte Henriques for “slanderous denunciation” et “breach of trust”.
An unprecedented situation within the body of French sport, and which shakes the whole institution. “I have been at the CNOSF for 25 years, I have never seen this. There have always been difficulties between the presidents and their secretary general, but they have always made sure to get along”, regretted Guy Drut, member of the IOC, to AFP, after writing to the president in September.
September 28, 2022: the president of the CNOSF files a complaint for defamation
Brigitte Henriques announces, Wednesday, September 28, to file a complaint for defamation after the publication of an article on a Danish site, Josimar, accusing her of having supported a federal executive convicted of moral and sexual harassment, when she was vice-president of the FFF.
In this article, signed by a French journalistBrigitte Henriques is implicated on the basis of a letter from October 2018 in which she praises the professional qualities of Jacky Fortepaule, former president of the Ligue du Center de football between 2017 and 2018. She mentions in particular “a committed and passionate director” knowing “put its skills at the disposal of the various federal commissions” and who happened “a lot invested”.
Brigitte Henriques assures in the press release announcing her complaint that it will be “henceforth so when remarks or writings are defamatory and/or undermine my honor and my consideration.” Another similar case of a former coach in Clairefontaine is also reproached to him.
Two weeks later, on October 12, she announced that she was stepping back, exhausted by months of conflict. She is replaced by a quartet of leaders (Michel Callot, Astrid Guyart, Jean-Pierre Siutat and Sébastien Poirier).
December 15, 2022: ordered to reimburse 4,000 euros in costs
For her first board of directors since her withdrawal, which will have lasted two months, the president of the CNOSF is ordered to reimburse nearly 4,000 euros in expenses following“errors” identified in an audit. The amount is divided between taxi bills, double billing errors, or expenses whose supporting documents were missing, according to the document consulted by AFP.
“These are costs that were sometimes incurred without really knowing if it was the responsibility of the CNOSF to pay them, and each time we decided against the president so that there was no problem”justified Michel Callot, the treasurer of the instance. “For me, these are not errors but abuses”judged Didier Séminet, with whom the president is in conflict. “This demonstrates the establishment of a system, even on small sums”he judges.
March 28, 2023: the CNOSF requests an audit from the IOC
On Tuesday March 28, Brigitte Henriques announced that she had asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to carry out an audit in an attempt to “stop” to the cabal of which it considers itself a victim for months, while the authority celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. Ihe celebrations, in the presence of the Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and the boss of the Paris Olympic Games organizing committee Tony Estanguet, did not have the expected effect of unity.
Former President Denis Masseglia, along with Guy Drut and three other former administrators, refused to take part in the festivities. “The witnesses that we are not having been called to testify upstream, will not be the witnesses of an operation which is much more about communication than about the story in which they were actors”they wrote in a letter addressed to the presidents of federations that AFP was able to consult.
March 31, 2023: two investigations opened and a letter
On March 31, thehe Paris prosecutor’s office decides to open an investigation after the cross complaints of Brigitte Henriques and its former secretary general Didier Séminet, according to information from franceinfo. A few days later, a letter, sent by his predecessor, Denis Masseglia, to the treasurer and the general secretary of the CNOSF, again shakes the body.
According to the president, this letter relates to one of the cases for which she had filed a complaint following the publication of the article in September 2021 accusing her of having supported an FFF executive convicted of moral harassment and sexual.
