Two weeks before the election, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and Didier Séminet met Monday evening at the Maison du Sport français. For nearly two hours, the two candidates for the presidency of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) presented their vision and ideas. Everyone was able to speak freely for twenty minutes., before a question and answer session intended to go further and enlighten those involved in French sport.
“The sports movement deserves clarity and commitment”
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra began her speech by recalling her career. “I am a child of the sports movement”, she emphasizes, a "pure federal product", who took his first license at 5 years old. "I have never been a member of any political party. My ministerial experience has not been that of a female politician, but that of a woman in politics. My only party remains and will remain French sport.", she hammered home, keen to distance herself from the label of the former Macronist minister. Indeed, Didier Séminet did not hold back when it came to his opponent's CV. I know the CNOSF from the locker rooms, not from the hushed salons of Roland-Garros. ", said the president of the French baseball and softball federation, recalling that he had left " You're welcome » and that he was “ an activist, always, not at the whim of conjecture ».
He thus warns of a " risk of rupture " if the base does not recognize itself in the CNOSF. He also denounced that the candidate wrote that she had received the green light from the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP), while " this light never turned green " since the HATVP " declared itself incompetent " Hence his questions about ethics. I did get the explicit green light from the HATVP, replied the person concerned. I did not need to submit to the a priori control carried out in such circumstances, but if I am elected president, I will be subject to a posteriori control. »
Didier Séminet had other cartridges, and he emptied his magazine. It was she who, when she was minister, transformed the National Sports Agency into the armed wing of the ministry and reinforced the constraints on Federal Sports Projects. " he pointed out, speaking of electoralism. " The sports movement deserves clarity and commitment. I speak clearly, even if it sometimes bothers people. I fight for ideas, for an ideal, not for itself. You will never see me rushing in front of television cameras, except to defend our cause. I am a man of action, not a person of brilliance. " he assumes.
White paper on French sport, AI and psychological support
In terms of ideas, Oudéa-Castéra presented around fifteen proposals for “a strong, useful and modern CNOSF”. She wishes to organize, from November, "a major territorial consultation on the future of sport and the club of tomorrow, leading to a white paper on French sport". A tool "which will allow us to have a united influence ahead of the municipal elections and in anticipation of the presidential election", in a context where budgets dedicated to sport are shrinking. In order to do “more and better for sports volunteering”, she wants to invite volunteers to sporting events throughout the year, "as part of their own blue weekends, where they can experience and share the joy of sport in supporters' squares". She also imagines “a pension bonus for certain categories of volunteers who have a very long-term commitment”.
She is carrying out the project to organize "the first French Youth Games for middle and high school students" to "bring the culture of the Olympics to life"This multi-sport team competition, “halfway between Paris 2024 and the Alps 2030”, would combine summer and winter disciplines, able-bodied and disabled athletes, and the final phase would take place at INSEP. She also cites the establishment of an emergency fund to support amateur clubs in exceptional circumstances, the creation of an economic transformation commission, “a prospective council to launch a series of works and conferences on the sport of tomorrow”, or even opening access to the “My Psychological Support” platform to athletes so that they can benefit from reimbursed consultations.
Didier Séminet, for his part, expressed a "healthy anger" when faced with your dog's "lost illusions" of the post-Paris 2024 period, denouncing the lack of respect shown by the Ministry of Sports towards the CNOSF and "the entire movement he represents"He even says he is ready to sue "the State before an administrative court for failure to comply with a contractual commitment" following the deletion of “75% of the financing duly signed and expected”. From June 20, the day after the election, he would launch a national survey for clubs (which would also concern those that are not affiliated). The summer universities and the General Assembly in October would then allow “together build the project that will guide the CNOSF’s action throughout the mandate”.
Among its objectives, from its first year in office: to set up a commission on all forms of violence, “an AI of the French sports movement necessary to reduce administrative burdens”, create a digital media for all French sports federations and stakeholders, but also "impose a political program for the French sports movement with a view to the 2027 presidential elections"The presidents of the federations still have two weeks to decide. With a smile, Séminet slipped on Monday evening : "I think the score will be 55% to 45%, but I don't know for whom."
