The former OGC coach reportedly complained about the too many “black and Muslim” players in the Nice team. Comments revealed by an independent journalist and RMC. The email had been sent to the management of Les Aiglons. PSG calls for an internal investigation. Christophe Galtier disputes these accusations.
Christophe Galtier, former coach of OGC Nice, will he resist the media turmoil? The revelations of two media have put racist remarks in the public square, revealed in an email.
Story of a soap opera that could last less than a Ligue 1 season.
> “Christophe will no longer enter a locker room”
Julien Fournier makes first hints at the start of the season.
On September 28, invited on the set of RMC in the program “After foot”, Julien Fournier launches: “If I explain the real reasons why Christophe and I argued, he will no longer enter a locker room in France and Europe. These are much more serious things than football.”
At that time, he is no longer director of football. Officially, on July 6, 2022, OGC Nice and Fournier put “an end to their collaboration”.
Allusions that arouse the curiosity of sports commentators, but Julien Fournier will say no more.
> The revelations of an independent journalist, Romain Molina
Faced with the omerta that reigns in professional football, the independent journalist Romain Molina reveals the email which he received”Luckily“, thanks to the “someone’s clumsiness”.
This email is a transcription of the conversations that would have been held between Christophe Galtier and Julien Fournier.
Independent journalist and author (he works notably for the Guardian, the New York Times, the BBC and CNN), Romain Molina took the time to verify it, to authenticate it, to request the right to reply.
> Phrases that set fire to the powder
The son of Christophe Galtier would have reported his father’s resentment to Julien Fournier towards a team composed mainly of “blacks and muslims”.
This opinion would have been assumed by Christophe Galtier during an exchange with Fournier in which he reported reproaches from supporters on the number of black players in the team and asked that the reality of the city be taken into account. “We are in the city of Jacques Médecin and our team does not correspond to what people want, just as it does not correspond to me”, Christophe Galtier would also have said.
This message would have been sent by Julien Fournier to Dave Brailsford, Sport Director at Ineos, the petrochemical group that owns the Riviera club.
The journalist Romain Molina made a 12 minute video online on YouTube to explain the different passages of the email sent to the management of OGC Nice.
> Galtier / Fournier: the internal squabble at OGC Nice
Contacted by France 3 Côte d’Azur, the journalist explains: “There has been a battle between Messrs. Fournier and Galtier for a year now”. The deleterious climate is known: “A lot of people in the industry know about it.” He recognizes that “If these allegations are proven, it is serious”. In this case, it’s word against word, but either way, if either is lying, it’s a legally wrongful allegation.
What struck him when he investigated the matter was the silence of all parties involved:
Nobody wants to talk about what happened. Whether it’s the players you don’t hear them, the clubs you don’t hear them and Mr. Fournier doesn’t want to talk either, he says that this is information that is more than a year old. I think that’s quite symbolic of our football, which is unspoken football.
Romain Molina, freelance journalist.
Comments that took place at the start of the season, in 2022.
> Julien Fournier speaks in Nice-Matin
Thousands of kilometers from Nice, Julien Fournier comes out of the silence. He is currently in Brazil, “far from this controversy”. In the local daily, the former sports director denies being at the origin of this “leak”.
“I am currently in Brazil far from this controversy with which I am associated at my expense. I am in no way responsible for the dissemination of this year-old internal information at the time of my departure from the club. I have never fired on an ambulance, despite all our differences with Christophe Galtier and above all I have too much respect for OGC Nice, a club whose colors I proudly defended for more than ten years and the people in place. , who are currently preparing for one of the most important meetings in their history in the European Cup. The timing of these revelations revolts me as much as their content”reacted Julien Fournier for Nice-Matin.
> PSG calls for an internal investigation
A few hours after these revelations, the PSG announced to open an internal investigation.
According to RMC, already at the origin of the initial information in its emission After Foot, the PSG president was in Doha when he heard the news. Whether “the management of PSG does not want to rush or give in to panic (…) the entourage of Nasser Al-Khelaïfi has launched its own investigation to try to find out more” explains the sports channel.
Nasser Al Khelaifi “was not aware of the details and the content of the remarks allegedly made by Galtier, in particular concerning the Muslim religion”, depending on the club. “If he had known, Galtier would never have been able to sign at PSG, impossible”, admits the entourage of the boss of QSI (the Qatari investment fund).
The coach is expected to give his side of the story at a press conference, in a few days.
> The position of the Collectif Ultra Paris
The shock wave continues with the release of the Ultras Paris Collective.
He feels he “not acceptable for this person to remain in the club’s organization chart”.
“We recall that we have always positioned ourselves against all forms of discrimination and this fight is a historic cause of our Virage”, added his management.
> Galtier disputes these remarks “with the greatest firmness”
In a statement sent to AFP this afternoon, Christophe Galtier “contest with the greatest firmness” having made discriminatory remarks about players when he officiated in Nice.
The French technician, who moved from Nice to PSG last summer, “read with amazement the insulting and defamatory remarks” reported by the former Nice leader Julien Fournier in an internal letter relayed on Tuesday by several media, said his lawyer, Me Olivier Martin.
“Given the seriousness of the charges against him, which he disputes in the strongest possible terms, Christophe Galtier immediately seized his lawyer, Maître Olivier Martinto initiate, without delay, the necessary legal proceedings, especially since since this disclosure, he has been the subject of intolerable threats and acts of harassment.is it written in the press release.
> The position of OGC Nice
At the end of the afternoon, the Nice club gave a laconic reaction on its website:
“The facts related concern two people who no longer work for OGC Nice. This situation was treated with the utmost seriousness at the time of the events. The club will not comment further.
This affair broke out the day before the quarter-final first leg of the Europa League Conference between the Aiglons and Basel, this Thursday in Switzerland. Despite the controversies, the game continues on the football field.