The mayor of Saint-Denis, Mathieu Hanotin, will soon express on behalf of the ten host cities of the 2023 World Cup full support for the decision taken to lay off Claude Atcher.
The ten host cities of the 2023 Rugby World Cup will express “full support“to the decision to lay off its general manager Claude Atcher, just over a year from the competition, due to “alarming managerial practices».
This decision taken on Monday by the Ministry of Sports, the French Rugby Federation (FFR) and the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF), must be ratified on Friday by an exceptional board of directors of the GIP (Public Interest Group) France-2023 .
On this occasion, the PS mayor of Saint-Denis, where the Stade de France is located, Mathieu Hanotin, “will express on behalf of the ten World Cup host cities full support for this position“, said Wednesday in a press release the president of Territories of Sports Events bringing together these cities.
«If governance by brutality or intimidation and authoritarian management are proven, we cannot endorse these unacceptable methods to succeed in an event that affects the image of all of France.writes Mathieu Hanotin on behalf of the ten host cities.
«One year from the event, the urgency is to re-establish a constructive dialogue with employees, public institutions, partners and the international federation. This is the essential condition to make, in all territories, this World Cup a great popular celebration for the benefit of the populations and all rugby enthusiasts.“, he adds.
The Rugby World Cup will take place from September 8 to October 28 in Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Nice, Lille, Paris, Saint-Denis, Saint-Etienne and Toulouse.
At the end of June, a labor inspection investigation was launched after an article in the sports daily L’Équipe detailing a “deep social malaisewithin the GIP. Since then, a report by the GIP’s ethics committee has highlighted “alarming managerial practices altering the functioning of the structure» and relating «the state of suffering of a certain number of collaborators».
Claude Atcher is laid offas a precaution» during the time of the investigation carried out by the labor inspectorate. He will also be tried from September 7 for “breach of trust», «misuse of corporate assets” and of “concealed work by concealment of activity“, alongside the president of the FFR Bernard Laporte and the boss of the Montpellier club Mohed Altrad, in the context of suspicions of favoritism around the sponsorship of the XV of France.
