the essential
It is apparently difficult to be an agent (on a fixed-term contract) of the sports department of the Toulouse town hall and to criticize the game of the TFC. Victim of an altercation during a match with a representative of a major partner of the club in a box at the Stadium, Kevin lost everything. Interventions and pressure from the municipality, of which he has written and recorded proof, cost him his position. He’s at the bottom of the hole.
Do you remember what you were doing on the evening of Friday March 15? No ? There is at least one person from Toulouse who remembers it very well. Like the beginning of a long descent into hell. That day, Kevin, who is working on a trial period in the sports services of Toulouse town hall, was invited by his godfather to watch the football match between TFC and Olympique in the Saint-Sernin box. Lyonnais. Things are looking pretty good especially as the Violets score and take the lead. A fervent supporter, Kevin stands up as one man to show his joy by clapping the hand of his neighbor, a radiologist whom he has just met. A short-lived happiness.
On the pitch, the TFC players get bogged down and end up losing with a score of 3 to 2. In his seat, Kevin has difficulty holding back his frustration and says out loud what everyone is thinking. . “Data isn’t everything,” he says, in reference to the TFC recruitment system, which chooses its players based on their digitalized physical and technical performances.
Heat in the stands
“It’s at that moment that a man turns around and insults me,” assures Kevin, like, you, you have nothing to do here, you drink my champagne, get out of here “. Security people intervene, but the threatening gentleman in question, who is in the bosom of a major partner of the club, continues his scandal. Kevin, who absolutely does not understand his insistence, goes to collect “2 or three slaps” on the cheek, collared by one of the security agents. “People around us were outraged, it was a full-blown attack,” continues the young man, who feels humiliated. And when his opponent learns that he works at the town hall, it’s the final blow “He told me that he was going to call the mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc to sort out my fate.”
Should we see a cause and effect link? Still, the following week, Kevin was summoned by the director of the sports department for an interview prior to dismissal. “I liquefied, he says. In the letter from the director of human resources at the town hall, he was criticized for “his behavior and his comments during the TFC match” to justify the procedure. “We even left to hear that I was intoxicated, which is false,” protests Kevin, who worked in the mayor’s office for 4 years.
A furious TFC partner slams the door…
In any case, it is difficult to understand how a private altercation, of which he was the victim, led to his professional dismissal. Especially since the town hall agent was not there in his capacity, but had been invited to the Stadium by his godfather, himself a sponsor of TFC. Who, in view of the turn of events, wrote to the president of the club, Damien Comolli, to denounce the attitude and the version of the facts peddled by his deputy general director at the time, explaining to him that he would not renew his partnership .
We are here today. Kevin appealed to the administrative court against his dismissal and also took criminal action for slanderous denunciation against the former deputy director of the TFC and the individual who ignited the problem. Hiding behind an ongoing procedure, the Capitol does not want to comment on the matter. As for the TFC, it denounced in a tweet “defamatory accusations” and reserves the right to attack the press articles which relayed this pitiful story. So, is data compatible with football?
