Christophe Galtier has denied making racist remarks during his time as manager of Nice at a trial in France.
Galtier, 56, is accused of saying there were too many black and Muslim players in his squad, and encouraging Muslim players to break their fast in Ramadan.
The allegations were made in a leaked email to ex-British Cycling director Dave Brailsford, who is now director of sport at Nice’s owners Ineos.
If found guilty Galtier, could face up to three years in prison.
The trial lasted one day, with a ruling to come at a later date.
Former Nice director of football Julien Fournier sent an email to Brailsford detailing the allegations about Galtier in May 2022.
It was then leaked to the French media in April 2023, prompting the Nice prosecution office to launch a preliminary investigation.
Galtier was arrested in June and subsequently charged with “moral harassment and discrimination on the grounds of actual or supposed membership or non-membership of a particular ethnic group, nation, alleged race or religion”.
Speaking in court, Galtier denied an allegation made by Fournier that he said Nice had too many Black and Muslim players and that it did not reflect the ethnological profile of the city.
Galtier said those comments were actually made by three people who came up to speak to him in a restaurant in August 2021, and that he had told Fournier and assistant coach Frederic Gioria about the incident.
He also denied an allegation he used a derogatory term to describe Algerian players Hicham Boudaoui and Youcef Atal.
Allegations he dropped Algerian forward Billal Brahimi from his squad because he was fasting during Ramadan were also denied, with Galtier pointing out that that Brahimi was not in his squad for his previous match, which was not held during Ramadan.
Galtier left Nice for PSG in the summer of 2022 before the allegations came to light.
He led them to the Ligue 1 title but was replaced by former Barcelona boss Luis Enrique in July and has since been appointed boss Qatari side Al-Duhail.
Petro-chemicals company Ineos, owned by British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, took over Nice in August 2019.
Ineos is in talks to buy a 25% stake in Manchester United and an agreement is expected imminently.
Should the deal go through then Brailsford is likely to site on a three-person committee running the football operations at Old Trafford.
