‘Hot air’ and ‘based on lies’ – Christophe Galtier’s lawyer criticises handling of inquest as hearing gets underway

A hearing into accusations of racism, levelled against former OGC Nice and Paris-Saint Germain manager Christophe Galtier got underway in Nice today. The French manager’s lawyer has been critical of the handling of the file. 

Galtier has been charged by the French authorities with moral harassment and ethnic, racial or religious discrimination, which would entail a three-year prison sentence and a €45,000 fine. The manager, now managing Qatari side Al-Duhail, has repeatedly denied the allegations, which surfaced after a leaked email from former colleague and Nice sporting director Julien Fournier was made public. The transcript of the leaked email can be read here. 

On Friday, morning, at the Tribunal de Nice, Galtier’s lawyers requested for the proceedings to be declared null. “Galtier’s rights have been ridiculed,” began his lawyer, Sébastien Schapira. “I have never seen a file treated like this. This email, fabricated by Julien Fournier […] is the basis on which the public prosecutor opened the enquiry. Only the players named in the emails have been questioned by the investigators. But have the other players been heard?”

He continued, “We are talking about harassment at every level, and we haven’t heard the captain of the team, Dante, a player that has played 300 matches for OGC Nice, because Julien Fournier decided! The investigators know nothing about football and Julien Fournier has walked all over them. It is on the basis of lies that this inquest has been formed.”

Schapira also accuses Fournier, the author of the email, leaked in April of this year, of trying to “bring down” his client during Friday’s hearing. “Fournier is there to bring Mr Galtier down, to kill him! This file is hot air, whispers in the corridor,