Noël Le Graët is no longer the president of the powerful French Football Federation (FFF). The now ex-Breton leader made it Tuesday, February 28 in “an extremely moving announcement” during the body’s executive committee, according to Eric Borghini, one of its members. A resignation which seemed inevitable, fifteen days after the delivery to the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, of an audit report from the General Inspectorate for Education, Sport and Research (IGESR) concluding that Noël Le Graët no longer had “the legitimacy necessary to administer and represent” French football.
Far from overwhelming the former mayor of Guingamp (Côtes-d’Armor), at the head of the “3F” for eleven years, the latter delivered a panegyric of the leader, welcoming his “sporting and economic record outstanding “. “Since June 18, 2011, [date of Noël Le Graët’s first election] the men’s and women’s teams have won eleven titles and played in six international tournament finals. These excellent results can be explained in particular by an ambitious training policy, “wrote the FFF in its press release.
As provided for by the federal statutes, the vice-president of the Federation, Philippe Diallo, will act as interim head of the body “until June 10, 2023, date of the next federal assembly”. A chair he already occupied, since the “withdrawal” of “NLG” in January. If Jamel Sandjak, president of the Paris – Ile-de-France League, had announced his departure from the executive committee on Thursday, the Breton leader, who has not yet spoken, will not have involved other members in his fall. .
A post at FIFA for Le Graët
If he definitely leaves the FFF, Noël Le Graët does not leave the world of football. The Breton leader will be “relocated” to the International Football Federation (FIFA), according to information from Le Monde. “The president was appointed to FIFA by Gianni Infantino. He will head the Paris office. He was appointed because of his skills, his expertise and his experience, “confirmed Eric Borghini, Tuesday, in remarks relayed by RMC.
“The departure of a man will not solve all the problems of the FFF, far from it. It is urgent that the Federation gets back on track, focusing on its fundamentals, in particular amateur football which is struggling, ”reacted Frédéric Thiriez, former president of the Professional Football League (LFP), Tuesday, in The Team. Calling on the Federation to “change its governance, which is neither democratic nor transparent”, the one who rubbed shoulders with Le Graët during his mandate, between 2011 and 2016, maintains that “football could have been spared this crisis because all the disorders of the current governance had been known for several years”.
A finding that the FFF does not share, which on Tuesday denounced the audit on the dysfunctions within the Federation. A report which has “sometimes led to a disproportionate denigration of the body”, recounts the press release, regretting the “lack of real adversarial procedure”. Commissioned by the Ministry of Sports, the IGESR audit mission resulted, Wednesday, February 15, in a damning report: the inspectors underlined in particular that “the policy to combat sexist and sexual violence in the federal network [lacks ] effectiveness and efficiency”.
Until then silent on the subject, the executive committee of the FFF drew the conclusions of this audit, Tuesday, after having recorded the resignation of Noël Le Graët. “The FFF notes that this report does not mention any systemic failure, nor any breach of its sovereign missions”, underlines the press release, noting that “this report is based less on objective facts than on assessments which have sometimes led disproportionate disparagement of the body”. This offensive defense nevertheless concludes with the commitment “to retain all the useful recommendations” of the said audit.
