The attorney for the plaintiff, Me Mathias Chichportich, confirmed that FFR President Florian Grill will indeed appear in Agen court in the afternoon, without revealing further details before the hearing. An hearing that could result in charges of involuntary manslaughter or witness status.
FFR has “seriously malfunctioned”
It is a “key” moment for the family of the young player from Stade Toulousain, aged 17 at the time of his disappearance, stated the family’s lawyer Me Édouard Martial. “It is so important to them that what they have been saying since the beginning be validated, potentially by charges being brought against Florian Grill and the French Rugby Federation, which has “seriously malfunctioned”,” he added, lamenting that “all regulations regarding the supervision of minors have never been applied.”
Medhi Narjissi was swept away by the waves on August 7, 2024, during a training camp of the French Under-18 team in South Africa, during a recovery session organized on a dangerous beach near the Cape of Good Hope. His body was never found.
A second hearing for Florian Grill
An administrative investigation conducted by the Inspectorate General of Education, Sport and Research (IGESR) notably mentioned a “faulty preparation of the stay” by the FFR and the “insufficiently formalized missions” of the various U18 supervisors. For the French Federation, these preparation shortcomings, which it does not deny and attributes to the legacy of the previous governance it faces, are separate from the tragedy which it believes lies with the responsibilities of the supervisors.
