Moretton, president of the FFT, accused of “brutal management and questionable financial management”.

After the French Football Federation and the case of Noël Le Graët (FFF), the French Rugby Federation and the case of Bernard Laporte (FFR) as well as the Handball with the Bruno Martini affair … the French sports authorities are on the grill. Would it be around this time the Tennis Federation (FFT) and its president Gilles Moretton to find themselves in a turbulent zone? The information published by Mediapart on Wednesday and then by RMC Sport on Friday is enough to make the French tennis world creak and shake. In their investigations, the two media have highlighted “dysfunctions of the FFT of Gilles Moretton”, president since February 2021. Gilles Moretton is accused of “brutal management and questionable financial management”. Overview of the facts denounced against the FFT of President Moretton! And to think that just a few days ago, the Minister of Sports and Olympic and Paralympic Games in France, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who was CEO of the FFT before being appointed Minister on May 20, 2022, announced to us “think about renovating the governance of French sports federations… “

What the two surveys have in common is the worrying number of departures within the FFT. Although the figures are not quite the same, they are still close. According to RMC, about 130 people have left the FFT since Gilles Moretton’s arrival, and Mediapart says 112. Two figures that raise questions, especially since both media agree that about 37 departures had been counted the year of the arrival of the former president of the Federation, Bernard Giudicelli. Above all, the methods would have been brutal with sudden internet cuts to make employees understand that they were no longer wanted but also a management that caused several burnout among employees. Surprising because Gilles Moretton had insisted on his will to put the human side back in the foreground during his campaign. Moreover, these dismissals would have been accompanied by colossal checks to avoid legal attacks for abusive dismissal.

For Mediapart, the president Gilles Moretton wanted to explain. Here is his answer. “It is absolutely false. Our organization, our functioning and finally the sporting values that we defend oblige us to a total respect of the law, and of the persons with whom we worked and from whom we separate when it is factually noted that they are not aligned with the needs and the stakes of the federation as much as with its project […]. We have never ceased to act respectfully and with benevolence in this context. Benevolence does not exclude rigour and stringency. I assume that I am a president who is demanding of my teams.”