Increase in reports of violence in sports: the liberation of speech becomes effective, says Minister Marina Ferrari

In total, the Signal-Sports platform received 872 reports in 2025 that led to an administrative investigation, compared to 532 the previous year.

Published on April 23, 2026 at 20:32

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“This reflects that the liberation of speech is becoming effective from the point of view of victims or people in their entourage,” reacted Marina Ferrari, the Minister of Sports, on Thursday, April 23, on France Inter, who presented the figures of reports of notably sexist and sexual violence in sports during a press conference. In 2025, a total of 872 reports were received on the Signal-Sports platform and resulted in an administrative investigation, compared to 532 the previous year and 363 in 2023. They concerned 60% of cases of sexist and sexual violence, indicated the Ministry of Sports, specifying that three-quarters of the individuals “implicated” are educators.

“Everyone can use the Signal-Sports platform, even if you are a witness to an event,” the Minister specified. Marina Ferrari praised “all the work that has been done since 2020” by her predecessors, notably “Roxana Maracineanu, since she was the one who initiated the creation of this platform“. She also does not deny the “underlying phenomenon” of these violence in sports “against which we are strongly mobilized,” she assures.

The Minister of Sports did not wish to specify in which disciplines more cases of violence were recorded, in order to avoid “pointing the finger at a particular sport,” she said. According to Marina Ferrari, “if there are sports in which we see more cases” of violence, “it is also because the work may be better done“. “We have improved communication” and “there is better consideration of these phenomena within sports organizations,” argues the Minister.

“One can imagine that when you have a sports federation with hundreds of thousands of members, statistically, unfortunately, you have more cases that can be reported to us. So, that’s why I am very cautious about trying to single out a particular sport,” nuances Marina Ferrari.

For her, “all sports organizations” are on the Ministry’s side “to combat all forms of violence in sports and particularly sexist and sexual violence“. She recalls that “in the delegation contracts we make between the Ministry and sports organizations, there is also the obligation to have plans to fight against violence in sports and against sexist and sexual violence. And many organizations, almost all of them, have referents to combat sexist and sexual violence,” emphasizes the Minister of Sports.