Two years after the first National Convention for the Prevention of Violence in Sport, speech has not ceased to be released. Both to denounce old facts and very recent acts. On Wednesday March 9, the Minister Delegate for Sports Roxana Maracineanu brought together the various players from the world of sport, the judiciary, national education and child protection, to draw a new balance sheet.
Fabienne Bourdais, ministerial delegate for the fight against violence in sport, thus reported, as of December 31, 2021, 610 cases of violence, identified since the launch of the cell in February 2020. “Since January 1, 2022, 30 additional reports have reached us. Suffice to say that this subject is not behind us”, underlined, in a loud voice, Fabienne Bourdais.
#AllConcerned “A little more than a hundred recent cases have come to us over the year 2020/2021. These are not old facts, the freedom of speech is therefore effective”,
Fabienne Bourdais, ministerial delegate for the fight against #violence in the #sport pic.twitter.com/0oRDxOLYD4– Ministry of Sports ⛷️ (@Sports_gouv) March 9, 2022
As if to anchor the problem in the present, the ministerial delegate specified that of the 610 cases, 107 fall within the 2020-2021 sports season. In total, more than 70% of the files relate to acts committed during the last ten years.
In 89% of cases, the reports were of a sexual nature. In total, 54 sports federations are affected but 12 of them concentrate 68% of the cases. The vast majority of violence took place in “leisure facilities”although the high level is not exempt – 37 reports target high level structures.
As in the 2021 report, the victims are overwhelmingly female – at 79% – and minors at the time of the events (84%). On the side of the aggressors, among the 655 accused, 395 were sports educators, including 86 on a voluntary basis. “Among the 309 paid educators or trainees implicated, a third of them did not hold a valid professional card when it is mandatory”, regretted Fabienne Bourdais.
Among the cases handled by the ministerial unit, 60% of them are now closed. Just over 200 investigations are still ongoing. The study of these cases led to nearly 300 administrative decisions by the prefects of the department. Thus 120 emergency measures prohibiting exercise for a maximum of six months (the time of the investigation) were pronounced, as were 67 permanent bans. For their part, the federations proceeded to 23 permanent radiations.
As part of the first National Convention, in 2020, the Minister of Sports undertook to make effective, from January 2021, the systematization of the integrity control of volunteers. With nearly two million criminal records to check, the task was going to be colossal.
#AllConcerned “We manage to follow more what is happening on the ground, thanks to the integrity check. This system mobilizes the federations. 216,000 checks carried out versus 10,000 previously”,
Gilles Quénéhervé, Sports Director of @Sports_gouv pic.twitter.com/0axQZsYhxh– Ministry of Sports ⛷️ (@Sports_gouv) March 9, 2022
Today, 68 federations have committed to this mission with 216,000 checks carried out, with a clear acceleration since the beginning of 2022. This work has made it possible to oust profiles: three emergency measures of prohibition and 17 incapacities (linked to a criminal conviction recorded in the File of perpetrators of sexual or violent offences) have already been pronounced.