French Olympic Committee in turmoil as president resigns

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00:00 Now the head of the French Olympic Committee Brigitte Henry has resigned 14 months before

00:07 the Paris 2024 Games. She had previously asked the International Olympic Committee to launch an

00:12 internal investigation amid a long-standing row with the body's former General Secretary Didier

00:19 Semeny. Now last year Henry took two months of sick leave, excuse me, accusing Semeny of what

00:26 she called psychological violence. To tell us a bit more, Philip Turrell from our Foreign Affairs

00:31 desk is with me and Philip, first of all, do we know why Henri has quit today? Well I think that

00:38 we are face to face with a situation within the French National Olympic and Sportive Committee

00:44 which is pretty much like an episode of Game of Thrones to be honest with backbiting, fighting,

00:50 vendettas, court cases and a lot of insults being traded between the different members. Now

00:57 Brigitte Henry took over the job back in June 2021 from the former president who is called

01:07 Denis Massiglia and the two have never really got on. They tried hard to get on but

01:14 there've been all sorts of financial complications. He's been accused of spending too much money as

01:20 an honorary president, something that he shouldn't have done. That all ended very badly. He has now

01:27 threatened to take her to court. They're expecting a court order of complaints about the way she's

01:32 been managing the committee since she took over. Coupled with that we also have the other argument,

01:37 the one you were just telling us about, with her former General Secretary who's called Denis

01:43 Semeny and she got rid of him just after a year of them working together saying that she had been

01:49 confronted by him, there was a situation of difficulty working together, they had different

01:54 visions of how the committee should be managed and that he had been threatening her with slander and

02:02 breach of trust. So since that happened he has now also said that he's going to take her to court

02:07 because all of those accusations are totally unjustified. As you were saying she was away

02:11 for two months between October and December last year to rest from all the difficulty that she's

02:18 been facing but things have not improved since she came back and many people within the Olympic

02:22 Committee have been saying it's only a question of time until Brigitte Haurique throws in the

02:26 towel and someone else will have to take over. The big problem here Nadia is of course everybody

02:31 knows that the Olympic Games are going to be taking place in just over a year's time here

02:34 in France and this comes along at one of the worst possible moments because it's not only bad for the

02:39 Olympic Committee here in France but also gives a very bad image of France in general when such a

02:45 prestigious event is being organised and so many problems don't seem to be able to be solved ahead

02:51 of time. So do you think Philip this will affect how the Olympics is actually organised in a year's

02:57 time? Well that is the big question. I don't think so. The Olympic Committee is saying look all the

03:04 building of the construction work as far as stadiums are concerned, as lodgings are concerned,

03:10 hotels and all that kind of construction work goes is happening according to plan and will be okay

03:18 but there are questions being raised about the tickets and the inaccessibility of tickets,

03:22 the cost of tickets, many people complaining they're too expensive and also about transport,

03:26 20% extra transport needed to take people around the city during the Olympic Games,

03:32 that doesn't appear to have been solved yet so quite a few problems still remain to be

03:36 worked out before the Olympics take place next year. Philip Tell, thanks very much.

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