Rugby: Claude Atcher says he has been the victim of “legal and media harassment”.

Former CEO of the 2023 Rugby World Cup France, Claude Atcher, who was sacked for “disturbing management practices” in August and then sacked in October, sees himself as the victim of “media harassment and bullying that has continued to escalate since June”. , according to a press release from his lawyers sent Tuesday, always adding “motives” to the question. “We urge the judiciary to be extremely vigilant in the face of this case, which ignores the most basic rights of the defense and jeopardizes the reputation of an individual in the absence of evidence,” the statement said.

Claude Atcher’s lawyer believes that he was “the victim of the wrongful termination of the employment contract, which was reported on October 10, for the alleged reason moral persecution “According to them, the gap occurred” at the end of the sham procedure and in the report of the labor inspectorate commissioned by the Minister of Sports (Amelie Oudéa-Caster). In this sense, the former boss of the 2023 World Cup has taken to “the labor court to challenge both the procedure and the reason for the termination of his employment contract and to ensure that the ISU respects his legal rights and contractors.”

The Atcher case began in June following the publication of an article in the daily sports newspaper L’Equipe in which anonymous witnesses revealed the existence of a “grossly degraded working climate” in France 2023 with “profound social malaise” among staff, where resignation and anxiety attacks are mixed under the influence of “terror management” carried out by Claude Atcher and his chief of staff.

The Ministry of Sports immediately decided to arrest the labor inspectorate for “disturbing elements.” On August 29, the Sports Ministry announced that Claude Atcher had been fired “as a precautionary measure” for the time needed to close the investigation by the Labor Inspectorate. On October 11, less than a year before the start of the World Cup, he was finally officially dismissed from his post.

In addition to the moral harassment component, after other articles in L’Equipe, the French courts in early November launched a preliminary investigation against the organizing committee for favoritism, influence peddling, corruption and any other offenses related to the pursuit of a joint report from the General Inspectorate of Finance and the General education inspectorate.