Football: Christophe Galtier accused of racism
«Enough Muslims», «Algerians are the worst», black players described as «King Kong»… Heavy accusations.Christophe Galtier now lives far from France. After a turbulent year in charge of the Paris Saint-Germain first team (2022-2023), the former TFC defender (1990-1993) has moved to Qatar, where he coaches Al-Duhail, a team from Doha in the Qatari top flight.
On Tuesday 5 December, the daily L’Equipe revealed the content of police interviews with a number of people involved in the case. Among them was Frédéric Gioria, a former great player at the club (he played there throughout his career in the 80s and 90s).
Then assistant coach, he describes the day in January 2022 and Christophe Galtier’s irritation when he learned that Billal Brahimi, a French-Algerian, had been recruited. « I don’t want another Muslim, we’ve had enough, » he was quoted as saying.
Also according to Frédéric Gioria, Christophe Galtier described Youcef Atal and Hicham Boudaoui (Algerians) as «dirty types». «The worst are the Algerians», he is quoted as saying. Again, the accused denied this.
Christophe Galtier will stand trial before the Nice criminal court on 15 December on charges of «moral harassment and discrimination on the grounds of actual or supposed membership or non-membership of a particular ethnic group, nation, alleged race or religion», according to Nice public prosecutor Xavier Bonhomme.
The accusations relate to his time as coach of OGC Nice during the 2021-22 season, just before joining Paris Saint-Germain
