Sport and sexual violence in clubs: Lyon is attacking the other side of the coin… On June 5 in L’Équipe, the Mayor of Lyon, Gregory Doucet revealed its intention to set a new prerequisite for the subsidies granted to Lyon sports clubs: they will have to train their staff in the fight against gender-based and sexual violence for the start of the 2024 school year. A decision widely welcomed, but which nevertheless makes some teeth cringe within the clubs.
A report by Laurene Roche
“We need a massive commitment,” said Gregory Doucet in the columns of L’Équipe on gender-based and sexual violence. As a reminder, in 2020, Roxana Maracineanu, Minister of Sports, deplored cases of sexual abuse in 40 French federations. The town hall of Lyon has decided to support this fight by making the subsidies granted to sports clubs conditional on the training of supervisory staff by the start of the 2024 school year. According to the mayor, Lyon is “the first major city to set up this system”.
One more lever against violence
For 2024, the City plans to train at least two people per club, a member of the board of directors and an employee. No maximum has been set. Julie Nublat-Faure, sports assistant for the City of Lyon, wishes to clarify: “We want this new condition not to be seen as an additional constraint, but as a key. » An opinion shared by Thomas Verro, administrative and sports manager of the Lyon Athlétisme club: “I see it as an accelerator rather than an obligation. It was already present in certain speeches and actions; if it has to go through a more formalized way, we don’t feel it as a constraint. The measure was received positively in most of the clubs we interviewed. Like Laurent Beaudroitpresident of the archery club Les Lions du 8ème, according to whom “the City is going in the right direction with this proposal”.
Some recognize that the involvement of sports federations on the subject remains slight, to say the least. At the Bacly badminton club, we insist on the fact that, “if badminton is a sport that is not affected by the major scandals of sexist and sexual violence, that does not prevent us from being vigilant”. Julien Lamerceriean employee of the club, who has trained with the association Colosse aux pieds d’argile, recognizes that “it allows us to be more attentive to some of our own behavior”.
Yann Cucherat, leader of the opposition group Pour Lyon, also welcomes this “good initiative” which seems “essential” to him: “From the moment we distribute public money, it is good to print a certain number of political orientations. When a project makes sense and tackles a social issue, there is no reason for there to be opposition. »
“All levels of governance must tackle the problem head-on”
This project was born thanks to Jean-Christophe Vincent. The president of the Lyon – La Duchère football club met Grégory Doucet to submit his idea. With Julie Junquet, a club employee trained in PSSM (first aid in mental health), he goes to meet elected officials to convince them to put in place policies against gender-based and sexual violence. Discussions are “on track” with Paris and Marseille.
Jean-Christophe Vincent has been fighting against sexist and sexual violence within the club since his appointment in 2021, with the creation of a prevention center. Julie Junquet is present to support members who are victims of violence: “I am a link between the club and the support structures. The difficulties I am facing are a reflection of what is observed at the national level: to have an appointment, it is nine months of waiting, the professionals are overwhelmed. I intervene to reduce these delays. I have to manage the wait while getting people to safety. »
During the first season covered by this scheme, out of the forty children received at the prevention center, ten were the subject of special monitoring, three were reported to the prosecutor, two of whom suffered violence within their family. For the moment, the accompanied victims have not suffered violence within the club itself, but in their entourage or other places of sociability.
The word of the victims seems to have been released in recent years, thanks in particular to the testimony of the figure skater Sarah Abitbol in his book Un si long silence (2020). Finally, it is listened to by public and sporting institutions. Several female athletes were pioneers in this consideration, including Catherine Moyon de Baecque. In 1991, she obtained the best results in the hammer throw; that same year, she was sexually assaulted by her male colleagues in the France team. Finding no support from her federation, she ended up filing a complaint. But she will pay dearly for this decision, since she will be excluded from sports bodies for several years.
Most federations, like those of athletics and badminton, are beginning to integrate awareness courses in the training of sports coaches. On the side of the town hall of Lyon, “we think that the communities also have a power”. For Julie Nublat-Faure, “when we want to act, all levels of governance must tackle the problem head-on. »
“Following this type of training means taking the risk that business will come out”
If the club of Lyon – La Duchère is shown today as an example, the path has not been easy. When the decision to use the services of the association Colossus with Feet of Clay was taken, some opposed it: “Many educators confused being educated against sexual violence with being educated about sexuality. This was until the dismissal of a coach, who refused to comply with this decision.
To clarify this misunderstanding, Fabien Lefevre, head of the prevention division of the Colosse aux pieds d’argile association, recalls that “the goal is to recognize behaviors, warning signals, in order to be able to act”. Training educators allows them to “protect them from risky situations and avoid false accusations – even if, it must be said, the accusations are true in 95% of cases”.
This reluctance to training, Maud Raynert has some experience. A former swimmer at the Clamart swimming club, she was the victim of sexual violence committed by her trainer. She now leads workshops on violence for young people. “I provided training at the Villefranche swimming club, the team admitted to me that they were afraid at the start of consulting me. Because following this type of training means taking the risk that business will come out. Some are afraid for the reputation of their club. We have also had more difficulty joining clubs in disciplines that have already been exposed to scandals of sexual violence. Despite several reminders, the Lyon figure skating club or the Aqua synchro Lyon club did not answer us.
This dimension of fear for the reputation of the clubs and sports concerned is frequently at the source of the omerta surrounding sexual violence, as Grégory Doucet and Julie Nublat-Faure recall in the e-mail sent to the clubs: “In the vast majority of cases, the law of silence prevailed. Height of disgust, the inter-self has benefited the aggressors, impunity has proven to be the norm. With the appalling motive that “we must not tarnish the good image of the environment”. »
At all costs
The implementation of such a system obviously represents a cost for the clubs. In Lyon – La Duchère, “the prevention center costs us 40,000 euros per year”. Jean-Christophe Vincent specifies that he does not want “that all clubs necessarily follow the example of the pole: it is a device with its costs, but training staff is important and should be considered necessary”. If the town hall of Lyon has assured to take charge “fully” of the costs of training for the clubs, Julie Nublat-Faure tells us that “the budget is not yet stabilized”.
Christophe Frappee, president of the Lyon Natation Métropole club, wonders about the setting up of the training: “Who will be authorized to train us? There are a lot of clubs in Lyon, I find it difficult to see how this is going to be organised. On the side of the Bacly badminton club, it is raised that “the real obstacle will be to free up time to train staff. Not all clubs are lucky enough to have employees. »
Faced with these concerns, Julie Nublat-Faure wants to be reassuring: “The training will be done in two stages, with first a general conference to which all the clubs will be invited. At the end of this conference, we will offer workshops for a year, which will be led by well-established associations. “A dozen training sessions are planned, even if the City can “consider more depending on the filling of the sessions”.
Laurene Roche
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2023-07-22 15:25:33
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