The crisis continues at the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF). It even gained momentum on Tuesday 16 May, during a meeting of the board of directors. Brigitte Henriques (photo above, right), the president, had chosen to invite her predecessor, Denis Masseglia (left in the photo), in the hope of finding a form of unity and appeasement. But the scenario turned out to be the opposite. A former supporter of Brigitte Henriques, who has now become her fiercest opponent, Denis Masseglia has called for the resignation of the current president. He also announced his intention to file a complaint with the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) for breach of trust. The former president of the CNOSF addressed the board of directors and read out a letter that he had written in advance detailing the financial irregularities he believed Brigitte Henriques had committed since her election in June 2021. Asserting that she was “no longer up to the challenge“, he announced his intention to file a complaint in the coming days. “This complaint corresponds to an imperative need for us to know, simply to know the truth,” he suggested during the board meeting. Masseglia has been in opposition since the ousting of former CNOSF secretary general Didier Seminet in September 2022, and is also blaming Brigitte Henriques for holding a press conference on 4 April during which her lawyer hinted that he might file a complaint against him. “The fact that this lawyer is threatening to file a complaint against me, against the backdrop of the Olympic rings, is not possible,” said Masseglia at the end of a stormy board meeting. In a press release published at the end of the evening, Brigitte Henriques also raised her voice: “The cabal continues,” she said. “As the saying goes, when you want to kill your dog, you say it has rabies. This is inadmissible. I do not have rabies (…). My predecessor was my first supporter, underlining my career as a high-level leader. This should be a wake-up call… I was the one who said no because I didn’t want to go along with him blindly, I didn’t want to sign a blank cheque. He has become not only my best enemy, but the main ambassador of his own hatred towards me (…). We will not give in.” Brigitte Henriques continued: “It is out of the question to enter this political game, we remain focused on the objective of the Paris 2024 Games.“
