As recently as May this year, Christophe Galtier coached Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé and celebrated a Ligue 1 title win with Paris Saint-Germain. On December 15, he will stand trial in a French court on charges of racial and religious discrimination – crimes committed, it is alleged, while he was manager of Nice between June 2021 and July 2022, charges Galtier denies.
This is real criminal law, not the soft-soap version of football. If Galtier is found guilty, he could face up to three years in prison. The stakes are dizzyingly high in other respects too, in a process that promises a dark night of the soul for French football and France itself, at a time of deeply fractured domestic politics.
An investigation published this week in L’Équipe highlights the surprising nature of what will be alleged in court. Galtier is accused of actively excluding black and Muslim footballers, and of pressuring his players not to fast during Ramadan or risk being dropped.
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Evidence in the public domain has him telling his assistant Frédéric Gioria: “Another Muslim, I don’t want it, we’ve had enough” after signing Billal Brahimi; calling Nice central defenders Harold Moukoudi and Mickaël Nadé the “two King Kongs”; and say to the club’s sporting director: “Julien, you still don’t understand. I don’t want any more blacks or Arabs.”
Galtier denies all this and will present an assortment of favorable witnesses to the court. He remains innocent until proven guilty and may still be acquitted of all charges.
But there is a broader note in the details, regardless of the outcome; one involving Ineos and its sporting director, Sir Dave Brailsford, which was widely followed as part of the new sweep at Manchester United if, as expected, the proposed new investment finally materialises.
At this point it is worth repeating the timeline of Galtier’s fall from grace. Nice is of course a club of Ineos. Galtier was appointed manager in June 2021 after meeting Sir Jim Ratcliffe, and installed to work under Brailsford’s arm’s length.
In May 2022, Nice sporting director Julien Fournier sent an email to Brailsford detailing the extent of Galtier’s alleged racist and discriminatory behavior. Fournier has since stated that he did this to avoid later being accused of covering up criminal behavior.
On the surface nothing changed. In July 2022, Galtier left Nice of his own accord to join PSG. The affair only became public in April 2023 when the email sent to Brailsford was leaked to the media.
It immediately caused a national scandal. The public prosecutor in Nice opened a criminal case.
In June 2023, Galtier was accused of moral harassment and discrimination based on race and religion. In July 2023, he left PSG and joined Al-Duhail of the Qatari league, where he remains manager.
Contacted by the Guardian, neither Brailsford nor Ineos were prepared to comment on the events involving Galtier and Nice, while legal proceedings are ongoing. A spokesperson pointed out that it had previously been claimed by Ineos that the email to Brailsford had been “escalated” and that “appropriate workplace processes were followed”.
It is difficult to understand from the outside what these processes would have been like. It is understood that, had the email to Brailsford not been leaked, allegations leading to a criminal trial would not have been reported outside the club. Ineos and Nice let Galtier leave with his reputation intact.
L’Équipe has described this turn of events as “embarrassing” for Ineos and Nice, although the full extent of it will only become clear as the process progresses.
Manchester United also declined to comment, saying: “It would not be appropriate for us to discuss matters relating to Ineos while their potential investment remains hypothetical.” But for United supporters, bruised by the departure of a top executive whose biggest failing was the mock handling of the Mason Greenwood episode, ‘L’Affaire Galtier’ will raise serious questions about the much-debated competence of Ineos and Brailsford, and their suitability . in running such a large public sporting institution.
Why didn’t Nice and Ineos take the accusations of racism by their own manager seriously enough to cause even the smallest public ripple? Why didn’t Brailsford report these allegations to the police? Did this information feature in the reviews Brailsford is said to have given of the club’s coaching? Why did it take a leak of the email to Brailsford and the almost immediate intervention of the police for anyone to see the full extent of the problem here?
The details of the allegations certainly required some kind of escalation. Galtier is accused by his assistant manager of describing Algerian internationals Youcef Atal and Hicham Boudaoui as “dirty boys” and saying: “The worst are the Algerians,” statements Galtier denies.
According to L’Équipe, Galtier is accused of drawing up a list of players he wanted out of the almost entirely Muslim club; of pressuring Jean-Clair Todibo to break his fast during Ramadan and telling another player that Todibo was a Salafist and an extremist; and to prompt academy coach Didier Digard to tender his resignation after reportedly expressing his displeasure that Digard was Muslim and could consequently ‘indoctrinate’ young players.
In his defense, Galtier says he left his office open to allow space for those who wanted to pray, and that he allowed Muslims to leave early for Friday prayers if they wanted. A statement from his lawyers, published in L’Équipe this week, reads: “Christophe Galtier will be determined 10 days before this hearing. He keeps his statements for the court. He is finally waiting for this public and contradictory debate, where he will demonstrate that he has clearly never discriminated or harassed anyone. His entire professional career and reputation are testament to his impeccable personality.”
France will brace for Galtier’s trial. For now, many other questions remain unanswered. Why did PSG say a fond farewell to Galtier in public, thanking him for his ‘professionalism and commitment’, when at that stage their manager was already on trial for these charges? Why was he so eagerly employed in Qatar by a club whose president is a minister and a member of the royal family?
More parochial: what does this all mean for Ineos, Brailsford and Manchester United? There is no suggestion that Ineos could have known anything about this before hiring Galtier, but whatever the outcome of the trial, United’s proposed new football operations department subsequently retained a coach who was ultimately criminally prosecuted for his alleged actions under the supervision of Ineos. Does this sound like the master of detail in action, the model of extreme competence needed to wipe away a generation of drift?
A recurring problem in the Glazer family era, and the vice that Ineos should have washed away, was the tendency to employ underqualified staff. The way job interviews go, it is difficult at this stage to see too much compelling evidence in the events on the Côte d’Azur.