“I do not accept that we can say that Christophe Galtier is a racist.” On Canal , former PSG coach Christophe Galtier, who will be tried in December on charges of moral harassment and discriminatory remarks when he coached Nice, responded to his detractors on Sunday September 17.
“It’s false, arch-false, people in football know me,” said Christophe Galtier for his first interview since his ouster from Paris SG at the beginning of July. “I am not accused of racism, the prosecutor sends me to court for two offenses, the first moral harassment against certain players, the second discrimination against certain players, it is totally different,” continued the coach.
The affair broke out after the revelation by independent journalist Romain Molina and then RMC radio of an email, which AFP was unable to authenticate, addressed to the management of the Nice club by former sports director Julien Fournier, with whom Galtier had execrable relations.
Fournier reported these comments attributed to the coach: “He then replied to me that I had to take into account the reality of the city and that in fact, we could not have so many blacks and Muslims in the team »; “He told me of his desire to fundamentally change the team, also specifying that he wanted to limit the number of Muslim players as much as possible. »
How to explain it? “I know, but I’m going to explain it in December, that’s for sure,” replied Galtier. “During Ramadan, as a coach I only have one obsession: the health of the players, the performance of my team,” he explained. “My players handled Ramadan the way they wanted, and they all played.” He will be tried on December 15 before the Nice criminal court for offenses punishable by three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros.
The Marseille native also returned to the sand yachting controversy, when he responded ironically to a question about PSG’s plane travel: “It was humor that we can do between us, not in audience “. The former technician from Saint-Étienne, Lille and Nice failed to convince in Paris and left after only one season, the title in Ligue 1 not having been enough to mask the failures in the Coupe de France and especially in Champions League.
At PSG, “I worked with a very good group, the opposite of what the media made of it,” he recalled, saying he was “proud of one thing, of having participated in this historic eleventh title”.
