The sports movement "in combat", on the international scene

Co-founder of the Observatoire du Sport Business, Wulfran Devauchelle is an expert in American marketing, football, governing bodies and sports.

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WhileDenis Masseglia, former President of the House of French Sport that he directed for 12 years, asked for neither more nor less, the resignation of the one he had supported, Brigitte Henriques. Although claiming to be "angry", the first woman President of the CNOSF appears serene and determined not to give up anything in her desire to modernize the institution. Alongside Ministers Amélie Oudéa Castera and Isabelle Rome for the International Day against Homophobia on May 17 at the OCOG, she gave the image of a sports movement actor, standing in a storm more media and polemical than real and structural.

While the editors echoed on the very night of May 16 the remarks made by Denis Masseglia who asks for explanations and who wants to change the Presidency of the sports movement, Brigitte Henriques whistles the end of recess and says she wants the "sports movement to be up to the challenges for which we are committed and commissioned. The burden on me is unbearable and the time of immobility cannot be the one that directs us and worries us."

The message is clear and displayed. The controversy has no place a few months before the Paris 2024 JOP within the Maison du Sport Français. "We have considerable work to do in terms of equality, the fight against violence, diversity and sport for all. I am well aware of the resistance but nothing will make me change my trajectory. I am at the side of elected officials, clubs and federations, serene and mobilized on the ground."

And indeed, in recent months, neither immobility nor controversy had their place on a possibly minefield internally but definitely turned towards action that is "exported" every day a little more. First, with the first International Conference on the fight against sexual violence in sport, held on 6 April 2023 at the Maison du Sport Français with the testimony of various personalities, the presence of Catherine Moyon de Baecque and the intervention of the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron and IOC President Thomas Bach.

Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Brigitte Henriques. Capture

A committed international conquest that continued in territories sometimes forgotten such as the CTOS of New Caledonia visited on April 24 to deal with the specificities of the territory in the presence of officials and local clubs. Brigitte Henriques took the opportunity to go to French Polynesia and visit the Olympic site that will host the surfing events with constructive exchanges and a beautiful enhancement of the territory and the heritage that is being built. This trip to the other side of the world was also an opportunity to travel to Brisbane for the signing of an agreement with the Australian NOC focusing in particular on this theme of heritage that animates and lives in the President of the CNOSF: "In the perspective of Brisbane 2032, the CNOSF has worked to make the France a partner member and not just an associate member," she said.

Brigitte Henriques with the mascot of the JOP2024. Capture

Then, it was the 43rd seminar of the European Olympic Committees that was held in Paris. Within the Maison du Sport Français took place the meeting of the executive board of the European committees which took place on Thursday, May 11. Ambitious exchanges, so that Europe, in the name of Sport, responds to the requirements of the sports movement and societal issues shared by the 47 countries represented.

Continuing this momentum so that the Paris 2024 JOP is not just a milestone but an opportunity to display and assume the ambitions of the French government, this is what should animate the Board of Directors of the renewed movement. Obviously, this supposes that the "old world" accepts that power is fully given to the Sports Movement in compliance with the statutes and the 2021 election that had made it possible to carry the candidacy of the former vice-president of the French Football Federation then supported by the outgoing President, for a victory that many welcomed. The same people who today have decided to continue to influence, weigh in the balance by expressing "a cold anger" that has become public but controversial. Because, make no mistake, the whole world is watching. And what will count are not the anger of some or the questions of others, but indeed the facts, the projects and we hope so, the successes.

History retains great men and, hopefully, great women, who inscribe their name in the long term, by passion, sometimes by combat but always in action. A few months before hosting the world's biggest sporting event, the international dimension of the CNOSF, its unity and its ability to transform itself remain major challenges to optimize the legacy of Paris 2024. After anger and misunderstanding must come the time of wisdom and (good) decisions. Beginning of response, next week with the General Assembly of the CNOSF.

Brigitte Henriques. @cnosf