Agbible by a report by the General Inspectorate and targeted by an investigation for “moral and sexual harassment”, the former president of the French Football Federation takes the direction of the Paris annex of the International Federation.
by Rémi Dupré
Noël Le Graët will have stayed less than an hour, Tuesday, February 28, at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the French Football Federation (FFF). Returning to the affairs of the body since January 11, the president of the FFF, 81, returned briefly, in front of the elected officials, on his undeniable sporting success (eleven titles, including a World Cup won in 2018) and Economic Since his enthronement, in 2011. Then he announced, “without tremolos in his voice”, his resignation, fifteen days after the delivery to the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, of an overwhelming audit report of the ‘General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (Igesr).
This abdication was inexorable as the noose had tightened around the Breton leader, targeted since January 16 by an investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office for “moral and sexual harassment” following a report issued to by the gesr.
The lonely departure of the octogenarian, whose “inappropriate behavior towards women” and the “exercise of very centralized power” were denounced by the inspectors, offers a respite to the members of the Executive Committee and To Philippe Diallo, interim boss of the FFF. At least by the holding of the next Federal Assembly, supposed to choose the new president who will be in charge until the term of Mr. Le Graët’s mandate, in December 2024.
Even if the prospect of the holding of a general assembly of revocation of the Executive Committee, which could be summoned at the request of a quarter of the members of the 218 great voters of the FFF, was not completely dissipated, The resignation of Mr. Le Graët marks a break in this long politico-judicial soap opera initiated in September 2022 by the decision of Amélie Oudéa-Castera to diligent an audit at the FFF.
Despite the good performance of the Blues of Didier Deschamps, unhappy finalists against Argentina of Lionel Messi, during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, this infernal sequence will have caused the disintegration of the “Le Graët system” and the fall of its two Main figures.
Establishment as a conservatory on January 11 by the Executive Committee, Florence Hardouin, Managing Director since 2013, will be dismissed for serious misconduct. She accuses her hierarchical ex-superior of having “sacrificed” her in early January, and poses as a “alert launcher” and victim of alleged facts of “sexual and moral harassment” of Mr. Le Graët.
Bloody war of succession on the horizon 2>
In the midst of the ruins of weakened federal governance, whose “failures” were pinned by the IGESR, the Executive Committee preferred to greet the “excellent results” of its resigning president and brandish the flattering figures of the ‘ Instance, with high funds (56 million euros), a record budget (274 million euros) and very generous (104.2 million euros transferred the 2021-2022 season with the amateur world. The “government” of the FFF deplores that the general inspection “is less based on objective facts than assessments which have sometimes led to a disproportionate denigration of the body”.
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