Christophe Galtier denies discrimination as prosecutors demand suspended sentence

NICE – Former Nice coach Christophe Galtier said on Dec 15 via his lawyers that the investigation into claims of harassment and discrimination against him lacked “impartiality”, as prosecutors asked that he be handed a one-year suspended prison sentence.

The 57-year-old is in court in Nice over comments he allegedly made about the Ramadan fasting month and Muslim players.

According to his lawyers, investigators should have set up a witness confrontation with Nice director Julien Fournier and heard from club captain Dante.

“We are talking about harassment at all levels, and we have not heard from the captain of the team, Dante, a player who made 300 matches with Nice,” said lawyer Sebastien Schapira.

“The investigators do not know football and Julien Fournier has fooled them.”

The affair blew up in April following a leaked e-mail reportedly from Fournier sent to Dave Brailsford, the former head of British Cycling and now director of sport at chemical giants Ineos, the owners of Nice.

It accused Galtier of making discriminatory remarks towards a section of the Nice squad.

Nice public prosecutor Damien Martinelli requested that Galtier be given a one-year suspended prison sentence and fined €45,000 (S$65,400).

In one section of the e-mail, Fournier mentions a conversation between himself and the coach, after Galtier had been surrounded by Nice fans in a restaurant and allegedly stated there were “too many Muslims and blacks” at the Ligue 1 club.

In another part of the e-mail, the director tells of an incident during Ramadan in 2022, which accuses Galtier of also claiming repeatedly there were too many Muslims at the club and of asking to have them transferred.

Martinelli said Galtier “clearly sought to reduce the number of black people and Muslims in the team”.

“For a professional club, Ramadan is a given. For Christophe Galtier, it’s a problem,” he told the court.

In a further passage of the e-mail, Galtier is accused of having described an opposition defender as “King Kong”.

Galtier, who left Paris Saint-Germain in July after a year and joined Qatari side Al-Duhail in October, admitted this but claimed that the term just means “power and strength”.

In April, when the allegations first appeared, Galtier issued a full denial and promised to have his say in court.

“I was brought up in a multicultural environment with shared values and respect for other people,” he said. “I cannot accept having my name tarnished in this way.”

For his part, Fournier did raise his alleged concerns about Galtier.

The Guardian, meanwhile, questioned in an article last week why Brailsford or Ineos did not take allegations of racism seriously or report the incidents to the police.

“Why did it take a leak of the e-mail to Brailsford... for anyone to see the full extent of the problem here?” the newspaper wrote. AFP