Four years after having ousted it on Christmas Eve 2020, Canal+ is forced to reintegrate Stéphane Guy. The Paris Court of Appeal found its dismissal zero and not avenue. Result: the legendary French football commentator will be able to resume his place on the antenna … with a check of more than € 700,000 to the key. A resounding setback for the encrypted chain.
Canal+ disowned, even in his words
The starting point dates back to December 2020, when Guy had praised his colleague Sébastien Thoen on the air, freshly fired for a parody of program on CNews. Channel had decided:
“It's not his antenna”,
Maxime Saada told the team. A declaration that has become a boomerang. Because by validating the journalist's reinstatement, justice has just sent a clear message: the antenna does not belong to the employers.
By consecrating the right to freedom of expression as the basis of the judgment, the Court of Appeal opens a breach. Other journalists, columnists or humorists ousted for “slippages” could review their legal copy. In several editors, we already follow this file carefully. On the unions (SNJ, SPQN), the reactions remain cautious but the previous one is now laid.
Stéphane Guy, total victory against Canal+
Guy back… But in what role?
Contacted by the media L'Equipe, the management of Canal+ did not wish to comment. Officially, reintegration is acted. But where will we see Guy again? Will he comment on the European Cup from September? Will it integrate the Canal Football Club or the new LFP platform? And if the chain is slow to clarify, Amazon or Bein could well try their luck …
At 54, Stéphane Guy made a shattering return. Judicial gold ball in his pocket, he goes up on the ground with a smile. As for Canal+, the emblematic chain may have just lost much more than a trial: an authority, a posture … and perhaps the control of its own story.
