French Olympic Committee in turmoil year ahead of Games

Sports Minister Amelie Oudea Castera on Thursday called on the French National Olympic Committee (CNOSF) to rally together after their president Brigitte Henriques quit her post only 14 months before Paris hosts the Olympic Games.

Henriques’ dramatic resignation at the committee’s general assembly comes after a year-and-a-half of internal squabbling and a very public disagreement with her predecessor Denis Masseglia.

The CNOSF general secretary Astrid Guyart will act in a caretaker role till a new president is elected “in the next three months”, the body said in a statement. 

“There have been no winners today,” Oudea-Castera told AFP.

She added, however, there could be “a victory, that of ethics and democracy.”

The resignation of Henriques — a former vice-president of the French Football Federation — is just the latest drama to affect French sports in the past year.

Several federations — football, rugby, gymnastics and tennis — have become embroiled in scandals.

There have been two high profile resignations as a result — football’s octogenarian president Noel Le Graet went in February following accusations of sexual and psychological harassment.

Former sports minister and French rugby coach Bernard Laporte also quit his role as president of the French Rugby Federation in January after being convicted of corruption — months away from France hosting the men’s Rugby World Cup.