Resignation of Brigitte Henriques: the IOC asks the CNOSF to "focus" on the 2024 Olympics

The International Olympic Committee on Thursday invited the French Olympic and sports movement to “focus” on the 2024 Olympics in Paris, a few hours after the resignation of the president of the French Olympic and sports committee (CNOSF) Brigitte Henriques.

A few hours after this surprise resignation, epilogue of a month of crisis, the international body based in Lausanne, and generally not very talkative, officially asked the French Olympic movement to “focus” on the Paris Olympics and to “stop internal conflicts ".

Boss of the Paris Olympics and ex-member of the IOC, Tony Estanguet also, in a message to some media, called for "collective responsibility" and "appeasement and stability" with a view to "success" of the Olympics. In the morning, the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra had called on the body to "gather" and "bounce back".

This crisis, which has been going on for months, as the deadline for the Paris Olympics approaches, worried many players in French sport. The Minister of Sports invited the executive office of the body "Tuesday evening" in order to "take stock".

In her closing speech to the members of the CNOSF, Brigitte Henriques, the first woman to chair this body, in a sporting world where there are not even a handful of female leaders, explained that she “did it for French sport ( ...) and for all the French people who are watching us just before the whole world arrives".

Conflicts and internal rivalries have therefore got the better of the former vice-president of the French Football Federation (FFF), 51, in open war for months with her predecessor Denis Masseglia, three terms on the clock, and who was facing to a core of opponents.

“She no longer had a choice”, reacted to AFP a president of a federation present in the room of the Maison du sport français during a general assembly which was eagerly awaited during which Brigitte Henriques, in office since June 2021, announced his resignation.

“The situation was no longer tenable, she made the right choice,” reacted another federation president after the surprise announcement by the president of the CNOSF, a body which brings together more than a hundred French federations, represents the IOC in France and has only a minor role in the organization of the Olympic Games from July 26 to August 11, 2024.

She detailed the results of her action before announcing her resignation which will be effective on June 29, a scenario that few had predicted, as Brigitte Henriques had repeated that she would not consider resigning despite the many episodes of crises that have marked her term of office.

The secretary general of the body Astrid Guyart will now ensure the interim until the election of a new president “in the next three months”, specifies a press release from the CNOSF.

This resignation should open a new page for an institution crossed for more than a year and a half by many turbulences, between complaints, threats of complaints, low blows and revelations of exchanges of emails in the press...

The eviction in September 2022 of Henriques' former right-hand man, Didier Seminet, brought this crisis to light, from which the institution never really recovered.

At the end of 2022, very affected, the president had retired for several weeks to rest. But on his return, the climate has not calmed down and it has become even heavier in recent days with the announcement by Denis Masseglia of his intention to file a complaint with the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) for breach of trust targeting the mandate of Brigitte Henriques.

Brigitte Henriques and Didier Séminet had filed a complaint against each other, leading to the opening at the end of March of two investigations by the Paris prosecutor's office and entrusted to the Paris judicial police.

"Denis (Masseglia) has 'killed' him, as he had done before with other women, it is the victory of the old world", reacted in a text message to AFP a source within of the entourage of the former president.

Brigitte Henriques' lawyer, Me Arash Derambarsh, believes for his part that his client "has continued to be harassed and defamed during her mandate". "I regret that the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra never firmly and openly supported my client when she was the victim of violence"

Philippe Bana, the president of the French Handball Federation, hailed him "a courageous decision which will undoubtedly reduce the conflicts in progress": "We were in an endless spiral, we must hope that the tensions subside", he told AFP.