The trial of Saïd Chabane, ex-president and current owner of the Angers football club (L2), prosecuted for aggravated sexual assault, opened Monday morning before the city’s criminal court.
He is on trial until Tuesday for sexual assault “committed by a person abusing the authority conferred on him by his position”. In a suit and tie, Saïd Chabane spoke at the opening of the hearing. He denounced a “presumption of innocence that has become insignificant” in the face of the “extreme media coverage of this case”.
“I have been convicted since February 2020 (date of his indictment, NLDR). I faced a virulent campaign, I was the subject of threatening SMS messages, pressure (…) In today’s society, being a man supposedly in power makes you a designated culprit,” he said. he declared on the stand. Four of the seven plaintiffs took their place on the civil parties’ bench.
Owner of the Angers SCO since 2011, Saïd Chabane, 59, was indicted in February 2020 following complaints from several women, at the time employees of the club or his charcuterie company. The complainants denounce facts spanning from 2014 to 2019, when they were, among other things, hostess, secretary or customer service representative at the SCO in Angers. The first four complaints collected agreed “on the operating method used by the author”, affirmed the public prosecutor of Angers Eric Bouillard at the time of the indictment.
The magistrate then mentioned the use of “surprise” and “a certain constraint”, linked to the “respect” that the man inspired in his victims, to “touch their private parts”. Entangled in a succession of affairs and a catastrophic sporting situation, Saïd Chabane gave up his place as president of the club to his son Romain in March.
Arriving at the head of the club and in its capital in 2011, he was one of the main players in the spectacular recovery of the SCO on a sporting level during the following years, including a return to L1 in 2015. Relegated at the end of the 2022/2023 season which was one of the worst ever recorded by a club in the French elite, and marked by the departure of coach Abdel Bouhazama after sexist remarks in the locker room, the SCO has raised its head. At the top of Ligue 2 after 18 days, he is one of the favorites for accession to Ligue 1 next May.
