Cycling: fired by UCI, former champion Frédéric Magné accused of reigning "by terror"
11/4/2019, 4:54:36 PM
Cycling: fired by UCI, former champion Frédéric Magné accused of reigning "by terror"
Lausanne (AFP)
Frédéric Magné, multiple world champion on track and director of the World Cycling Center in Aigle (Switzerland), was fired for "loss of confidence," the International Cycling Union said on Monday. French is accused according to various testimonies collected by AFP of harassment, abuse of power and having "ruled by terror".
"On the basis of information received, the UCI considered that the bond of confidence was broken and Mr. Frédéric Magné left his position as director of the UCI World Cycling Center", told AFP a spokesman of the UCI. His dismissal dates back two weeks.
According to several concordant testimonies collected by AFP, Mr. Magné was for ten years the author of facts assimilating to the systematic harassment with cyclists trainees as employees, abuse of power and abuse of property social.
Thus, the former champion, "violent and manipulative", kept his employees "under pressure by a form of terror", seeking a submission "without limit" and threatening retaliation, which explains the will of the witnesses to remain anonymous.
- Magne can not say anything -
Joined on the phone Monday by AFP, Frédéric Magné said he could "say nothing, I can not comment, I am bound by a confidentiality clause".
His lawyer, Mathieu Blanc, also joined by AFP, "strongly contested the materiality of the facts" mentioned in the various testimonies, adding that these accusations were "constituted by people who wish to attack the reputation" of his client.
For Me Blanc, the breach of the contract of Mr. Magné by the UCI follows "political and strategic differences of view".
Frédéric Magné, 50, has been a three-time world champion keirin and four-time world tandem champion, associated with Fabrice Colas, in the 1980s and 1990s.
Since 2009, he has been running the CMC, a high-level training and training center under the control of the UCI, which since 2002 has welcomed cyclists from around the world in three Olympic disciplines: road, track and BMX.
It was following the hearing of an employee whose contract he had refused to renew that the UCI obtained concordant information on abuses and excesses of the director of the CMC.
According to the testimony, Mr. Magné exercised continuous pressure and blackmail on the job, even demanding and obtaining from some employees material material consideration.
Almighty, seconded by the same methods by a number 2 became his mistress, he forced employees to clean his personal garage, mow his lawn, wash his bike or his car and accompany his children to school, while both left cycling or other sports activities during their working hours.
An employee who has been burned for several years has said that his "whole life" has been affected by the harassment he has suffered.
- "permanent discrimination" -
As for the athletes for whom he was responsible, Mr Magné exercised over them "a form of permanent discrimination".
Thus African cyclists, victims of racism and belittled systematically, could not benefit from the same equipment as the others. He constantly denigrated them by telling them to "return to Africa" and showed no respect for Muslims and their food requirements. Without warning, without any explanation and according to a method at least cruel, Mr. Magné had thus made the decision on a whim to return to their country all African athletes, on the pretext that an Eritrean had fled the CMC .
The former pistiel used the same methods with South American cyclists and was also guilty of "moral harassment" against many other cyclists, accusing them of excessive weight, which would lead to anorexic behavior.
To stay in place all these years, he also blackmailed the employees by dissuading them from denouncing the repeated abuses suffered and also benefited from the succession of different presidents at the head of the UCI to present himself in his best light.
The former champion also particularly cared for his relationships with powerful and influential people. He is thus suspected of having provided, on the funds of the CMC, bespoke bicycles valued at several thousand euros "to relatives, acquaintances and local and international personalities of the political and sporting milieu of which he was very close and with whom he sometimes rolled, "according to the same sources.
Asked whether it plans to take legal action, the UCI said it would not "make any additional comments at this stage".
© 2019 AFP
Source: france24