The sunny days are back and the tennis players of the Luxembourg Garden (VIe) are trembling to finally be able to exchange forehands, while the doors of the 6 courts still remain closed. After several months of legal battle around a call for tenders organized by the Senate, owner of the land, to find a new operator, a hearing before the administrative court of Paris is to be held on June 1 and could allow to consider a reopening soon. Or not.
The judge of the interim measures had been seized last April by one of the candidates for the call for tenders, Hervé Picard, CEO of the company Paris Tennis, who contested the procedure of competition and denounced irregularities of treatment between the different candidates. The administrative court must therefore again hear the lawyers of Paris Tennis, the Senate and the company Vaziva, victorious exit of the call for tenders on April 14.
"Anything can happen" at the hearing
The Paris Committee, the Paris organ of the French Tennis Federation, finally withdrew its candidacy. A withdrawal that could have its importance, because Vaziva had reported support from the FFT in his concession project. A support contested by the federation which evokes an "individual initiative".
" READ ALSO Paris: promised to a reopening on May 1, the tennis courts of Luxembourg remain closed
"Anything can happen," said a source close to the case. The judge can decide to confirm Vaziva's candidacy, but also consider that his project has become null and void because of the withdrawal of the Paris committee, and thus consider the initial call for tenders as unsuccessful. But if Vaziva is confirmed, the reopening can happen very quickly. »
"The problem is no longer even the reopening, it is that justice is done in full knowledge of the facts," hopes Hervé Picard. While Bernard Brossolet, on the Vaziva side, wants to be confident: "We strongly hope to win, we have been waiting for two months. I do not see why we should not be confirmed. The decision will be deferred by a judge's order in the days following the hearing.
