Christophe Galtier’s former teams defend manager amid racism allegations

Following accusations of racism levelled at Christophe Galtier in an email from last year attributed to ex-Nice director Julien Fournier, Le Parisien have outlined responses from the Paris Saint-Germain manager’s former clubs.

Saint-Étienne co-president Roland Romeyer dismisses any suggestion that Galtier would hold discriminatory views (“I’m sorry? Christophe Galtier, a racist? What’s this nonsense?”) and says that the coach had never made a single racist remark in his eight years there.

He adds that the coach was concerned for the players’ wellbeing during a particularly hot day in Ramadan, when the team was training in Évian. He explains that Galtier, who was concerned the observing players would suffer from heart problems, brought in an Imam from Saint-Étienne to explain to them that they could take a break from fasting during intense physical activity. He adds that the question of a player’s religion was never brought up in transfer discussions. The only concern, he says, was potentially losing too many players at the same time to AFCON duty during the month of January.

The outlet adds that during Ramadan periods at Lille, Galtier would simply ensure that the players who were fasting were being watched over by the medical team. In terms of his squad management, Galtier looked to avoid bringing in too many players of the same nationality in order to avoid cliques forming in the dressing room, for the sake of squad balance – but never discriminated based on skin colour or religion. At Nice, Le Parisien add, he sometimes let Muslim players leave Friday’s video sessions early in order to go to prayer. 

Fournier, who left the club in the summer, has denied being responsible for the contents of the email transpiring, while Galtier, through a statement made by his lawyer to AFP, has refuted the allegations “in the strongest terms“.

GFFN | Raphaël Jucobin