Former PSG coach Christophe Galtier was taken into custody this Friday, June 30.
Fired from PSG, but still under contract (negotiations are underway to end the last year of the contract), Christophe Galtier and his son John Valovic-Galtier were placed in police custody in Nice this Friday, June 30 as part of of the investigation into suspicions of discrimination at OGC Nice, announces the public prosecutor. The coach had been summoned this morning by the investigators in charge of the case on charges of “discrimination based on alleged race or affiliation to a religion”.
As a reminder, the case (explained a little below) broke out last April with the publication of an internal email when Christophe Galtier was coach of OGC Nice. If searches have been carried out in recent weeks at the headquarters of OGC Nice and if several Nice players and managers have been heard by the investigators, this is the first time that the investigators have summoned the Galtier family. The coach has always firmly denied and even filed a complaint, according to a source familiar with the matter as indicated by L’Equipe.
The Galtier affair really exploded on Tuesday, April 11. The independent journalist Romain Molina was the first that day to relay on social networks an e-mail, without header or signature, in which discriminatory remarks were attributed to Christophe Galtier. The same evening, the same document was broadcast on the show L’After foot on RMC.
The leaked email was authenticated by RMC as coming from the former sports director of OGC Nice, Julien Fournier, when Christophe Galtier was still on the Nice bench. He recounts an explanation he would have had with the coach after an exchange with him and his son John Valovic-Galtier, also a sports advisor. “Once his agent/son left, I reported to Christophe (Galtier) about the discussion I had just had and asked him if it was all true. He then replied that yes and that I had to take into account the reality ‘of the city’ and that indeed, we could not have so many blacks and Muslims in the team”, can we read in this email.
“He said to me ‘last night I went to the restaurant and everyone ran into me saying we have a black team’ and then added: ‘Julien you have to realize what city we are in, we we are in the city of Jacques Médecin (former mayor of Nice, editor’s note), and our team does not correspond to what people want, as it does not correspond to me’, there was no sporting argument but only arguments religion or skin color”.
In Nice, Christophe Galtier would have been particularly annoyed by several recruitments made by the club on the initiative of Julien Fournier, in particular the arrival of players of Muslim faith in its workforce. Thus, in April 2022, “the month of Ramadan would have caused the locker room to implode”, according to Nice-Matin journalists who published an investigation on April 12.
Christophe Galtier, during this period, would have mentioned “the difficulty of winning matches” with footballers practicing fasting, considering this deprivation “too impactful on the performance of the players”. The current Parisian coach would even have come, according to Nice-Matin, to threaten the Algerian midfielder Hicham Boudaoui not to be established if he refused to eat during the day.
Julien Fournier, who was “in Brazil” when the affair broke out on April 11, said the next day that he was “far from this controversy” to which he was associated “at [s]es depends”, without however deny being the author of the email that leaked to the media. “I am in no way responsible for the dissemination of this year-old internal information when I left the club”, nevertheless reacted the former Nice manager, still in the columns of Nice Matin. “The timing of these revelations revolts me as much as their content,” he explained.
The conflict between Christophe Galtier and Julien Fournier during their collaboration at OGC Nice was well known in the football world. “The relationship I could have with Christophe was quite chaotic from the start of last season. If I explain the real reasons why Christophe and I had a fight, Christophe will no longer go into a locker room in France or Europe” , explained Julien Fournier last fall.
“I don’t want to get tired of debating everything that is said. The function automatically creates a debate one after the other. On the form, I’m not surprised knowing the character. There you go, it’s That’s all I have to tell you,” commented the PSG coach after this first spade from his ex-sports director.
Very quickly stigmatized, Christophe Galtier reacted fairly quickly. In a press release sent to AFP on April 13 by his lawyer, the PSG coach said he contested “with the greatest firmness” the accusations of racism. Through Me Olivier Martin, Christophe Galtier even assured that he wanted to “start legal proceedings” since he “learned with amazement of the insulting and defamatory remarks” which were lent to him. At a press conference, Christophe Galtier read a press release and did not want to dwell on the subject, wanting to leave the work of justice. “Like many of you, I am deeply shocked by the comments that I am given and which have been relayed by some in an irresponsible way, he said at a press conference a few days after the revelation of the email. They strike me in the depths of my humanity. I am a child of low-rental housing estates, brought up in diversity, in the values ??of sharing and respect for others, whatever their origin, color or religion. All my life as a man, as a footballer and then as a coach has been dictated by the concern for sharing and living well with others. I cannot accept that my name and my family are soiled in this way.” For several weeks, the case, still under investigation, had not offered new statements from the French technician.
