Davis Cup Captain Arnaud Clement is suing the French Tennis Federation (FTF) at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) after the association dismissed him from his job in September. The former captain of the French Team filed the lawsuit against the association for 1.5 Million Euros.
According to France24, Clement served as the team captain from 2013 until the end of 2015. His contract with the federation would expire at the end of 2016. However, Clement was sacked allegedly before his contract ends due to his poor performance after his team lost to Great Britain. FTF offered to pay him 400,000 Euros, but he refused the pay-off. Clement was replaced by former captain Yannick Noah.
"Arnaud Clement has initiated proceedings...to resolve his disagreement with the federation," a source said of Clement.
In a previous report of Tennis, Clement was reportedly fired by the federation after his failure to unite and motivate his team. FTF claimed that the growing tension between Clement and his team members pushed the association to dismiss him. The federation admitted that apart from the pressure in Clement's team, the loss to Britain and other consecutive poor performances of Clement contributed to his dismissal.
During the time, it was reported that Noah was a strong contender for the position of Clement. Noah headed France to the 1991 and 1996 Davis Cup titles, ESPN reports. "Regarding Yannick Noah, it is hardly a secret that he has showed an interest in taking over," French federation technical director Arnaud Di Pasquale said. "It's a long process with many discussions taking place."
Clement was under fire after the team's final for sending out Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for the opening singles match despite the latter's forearm injury. The two had disagreement when Tsonga failed to inform Clement that he was not ready to play during the time.
