Christophe Galtier lambasted Algerians and Muslims in his mail
Consider reading the article to learn about the grave charges that OGC Nice members have levelled against the club’s former coach, Christophe Galtier, who is scheduled to go on trial on December 15.
Galtier is set to face trial on December 15.
“Another Muslim, worst are Algerians,” full contents of email Christophe Galtier sent to Dave Brailsford revealed
🚨Christophe Galtier aurait selon Gioria qualifié Youcef Atal et Hicham Boudaoui de « sales types » et aurait ajouté « le pire, ce sont les Algériens ». {@lequipe} pic.twitter.com/8No2gBuP5V
— Algérie Football Média 🇩🇿 (@DZFOOTBALLDZ) December 4, 2023
🚨 Andy Delort prend la défense de Christophe Galtier :
« Sincèrement je n’ai jamais entendu Christophe Galtier tenir des propos racistes ou discriminants, et pourtant j’ai fait la saison complète, et j'ai vu tous les propos qui sont sortis.
J’ai juste une anecdote que j’ai… pic.twitter.com/XqxSvqKmAx
— Actu Foot (@ActuFoot_) December 5, 2023
According to Nice public prosecutor Xavier Bonhomme, Christophe Galtier will face trial on December 15 before the Nice Criminal Court on “counts of moral harassment and discrimination based on membership or non-membership, true or supposed, to a specific ethnic group, nation, alleged race, or religion.” These allegations concern the time he spent in 2021–2022 as OGC Nice’s coach, right before he joined Paris Saint-Germain.
Many people were interviewed as part of an inquiry while they awaited trial. The statements made by multiple OGC Nice management team members to the judicial police are published in the journal The Team. In September 2022, Julien Fournier, the former sports director of the Nice club, made some imprecise claims that took on new dimensions in April 2023.
The worst are the Algerians!
At that point, Fournier had absconded with an email intended for Dave Brailsford, director of football at Ineos, the company that owns OGC Nice. We discovered that Galtier would have requested that Fournier hold “taking into account the reality of the city” over a dinner at a restaurant to facilitate recruitment and that the team could not have as many “blacks and Muslims.”
The Team reported that Frédéric Gioria, a current coach at OGC Nice and a former player and captain of the team in the 1990s, verified hearing Galtier repeat this tale. Gioria is also said to have informed the authorities of Galtier’s ire at the news that Franco-Algerian winger Billal Brahimi had been recruited. Galtier would have said, “Another Muslim; I don’t want him; we’ve had enough.” Nevertheless, Gioria claims that the 57-year-old coach claimed that “the worst are the Algerians” during a training session, allegedly becoming irritated with Algerian internationals Youcef Atal and Hicham Boudaoui.
Ramadan: a source of conflict
The evidence of Hachim Ali Mbaé, the current head of the video unit in Strasbourg and a former video analyst at OGC Nice, is also cited by the Team. The latter told detectives about a September 2021 halftime match versus Saint-Étienne. Harold Moukoudi and Mickaël Nadé, the two Stéphanois defenders, are what Galtier would have called “two King Kongs.”
Galtier would also have objected to Ramadan on match days during his year in Nice. “They’re too severe,” Hachim Ali Mbaé said of the Algerian players that he would have dropped one day. Both Hicham Boudaoui and French defender Jean-Clair Todibo reported to police that they had been pressured by Galtier to break their fast.
While still at Nice, Todibo also goes back in time to a preseason friendly match where he and teammate Hane Kamara strongly disputed a refereeing call. Galtier would have said, “You never do that here, we’re not in the 9-3,” if he had known. When questioned by investigators, Kamara provided the same account of events, emphasizing that his coach had already called him “scum.”
Before the Qatar world cup
When Julien Fournier was questioned by the police as well, he brought up a meeting that was scheduled for March 31, 2022—the day before Ramadan began. In this meeting about the upcoming summer transfer window, Galtier would have asked to have many players (Todibo, Boudaoui, and Tal), “almost only Muslims,” according to The Team, leave. Fournier would have proposed that recruits—specifically, the Turk Ozan Kabak—experience Galtier’s rejection. “You still don’t get it, Julien. “I don’t want any more Arabs or Blacks,” Galtier might have said, according to Fournier.
Nothing was found during searches conducted at OGC Nice on April 14, 2023, which also allowed for a search of Galtier’s personal computer. It was a devastating sporting decision for the Marseille native to leave PSG after just one season, which occurred last summer. He recovered and was hired as coach of Al-Duhail, a club in Qatar, in the middle of October. Since the start, even when he was being held in June 2023, Gallier has denied all of the charges levelled against him.