According to information from the “world”, the inspectors in charge of the audit diligent by the Minister of Sports at the French Football Federation meant to its president that they were going to bring back to the public prosecutor of Paris with the facts likely to be criminal reprehensible.
by Rémi Dupré
The Noël Le Graët affair takes a new scale. According to information from the world, the mission of the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (IGESR) responsible for leading an audit to the French Football Federation (FFF) meant, Friday, January 13, to its President, Noël Le Graët, that she was going to issue a report to justice concerning him under article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Which imposes, “for any constituted authority, any officer or civil servant, in the exercise of their functions”, to report crimes or crimes which he is aware of.
The hearing of the agent Sonia Souid on Monday, January 9, by the inspectors led the latter to want to report facts likely to be criminally reprehensible, qualified as “sexist outrage”, to the public prosecutor of the Republic of Paris. With a face discovered, Mrs. Souid had reported the day before in the press of a series of pressing and branching calls, messages and invitations to dinner on the part of the patriarch of French football.
After this hearing, several ex-employees of the FFF and its general manager, Florence Hardouin, brought complementary elements to the inspectors; which, before this interrogation, had not been aware of elements justifying to issue a report to justice. They had so far heard about sixty people.
The audit first focuses on the accusations of sexual harassment and sexist behaviors (inappropriate gestures and remarks, tendentious SMS) emanating from ex-collaborates of the FFF against Mr. Le Graët, 81, in post at the head of the body since 2011.
He has always denied any displaced behavior
The latter accepted, on Wednesday, after an extraordinary meeting of the FFF executive committee, to set back until the end of the inspection mission diligent in September 2022 by the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castera.
The Radio France investigation unit has also published several testimonies from former employees on the basis of their hearing by the inspectors. These ex-collaborators portrayed the profile of an often alcoholic manager, inclined to send invitations to dinner and capable of putting her “thigh” hand on an employee during a plane trip. A former leader told the inspectors that she was “faced” by an “indecent proposition” made by the boss of the FFF.
The entourage of Mr. Le Graët, contacted by Le Monde, did not comment on this information at this stage. Auditioned twice by the IGESR, the former Guingampais president has always denied having had the slightest remarks or behavior inappropriate with regard to his collaborators and women.
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