A former young player from Olympique Lyonnais requested nearly two million euros in compensation on Wednesday from her former club before the Lyon judicial court, claiming to have suffered sexual discrimination while she was in training.
In 2017, at the age of 15, Lina Salhane, a Strasbourg native spotted three years earlier while playing in Germany, joined the U19 women’s team to train at OL, among the best women’s football clubs in the world. world.
Once nicknamed “little Messi”, she was fired after just one year, a few days after revealing sexual assault by a trainer, Yohan Desbos, who has since been sentenced to six months in prison.
For Ms. Salhane, there is no doubt that her dismissal, which sealed her career, is linked to her denunciation.
An accusation brushed aside by the club, which argues that two other players involved in the affair continued within OL and that Ms. Salhane’s “unfavorable sporting evaluations” did not allow her license to be extended.
At the hearing, Ms. Salhane’s counsel, Me Slim Ben Achour, however, points to “systemic discrimination” linked to the fact that young players do not have a training agreement, unlike boys.
Since then, the situation has evolved. A decree of June 19 approved the establishment of standard training agreements for the women’s sector and the creation of a professional women’s football league must be effective from July 1, 2024.
In the meantime, “the women’s football system is not up to par with men’s football,” recognizes OL counsel, Me Christophe Bidal. “But it is less an individual fault than a systemic fault,” he argues, ensuring that the club is only respecting the regulations set by the Professional Football League (LFP).
But for Me Ben Achour, “OL violates one of the pillars of the French Republic”, invoking the Constitution which prohibits discrimination between women and men. A law superior, in the hierarchy of standards, to the regulations of the French Football Federation, he recalls.
The Defender of Rights, seized of the case and whose representative was present at the hearing, also concluded that there was “proven discrimination from the start since the girls were not offered this training agreement”.
The decision will be made on November 22.