“The harassment lasted for several years,” says Sonia Souid. The sports agent, a former volleyball player, was invited on Thursday March 2 on the France Info set to discuss her relationship with Noël Le Graët, who has just resigned from the management of the French Football Federation. This is not the first time that Sonia Souid has spoken out on the subject: she was one of the women to speak out in the media to denounce the inappropriate behavior of the former president of the FFF.
For a long time, she did not even think of filing a complaint, afraid of the impact it would have on her career. But realizing, in recent months, that she had not been the only one to suffer from the harassment of Noël Le Graët, Sonia Souid finally spoke. On France Info, she lamented that despite the large number of accusations, the ex-boss never apologized: “Did he have the slightest thought for the victims? No, he totally denies it,” she said annoyed.
Sonia Souid also suffered from seeing her word questioned, in particular by Noël Le Graët’s lawyer. “What would I have had to gain other than risk losing my career, my reputation?” she pointed.
Sonia Souid returned at greater length to the story of a dinner to which she had been invited, as well as Brigitte Henriques, at the president of the FFF. The other guest not having finally come, the then 29-year-old young woman found herself face to face with her boss. “I arrive at the Parisian home, I see in his living room two glasses of champagne already served,” she says.
Later, “he takes off his suit jacket, he unbuttons the collar of his shirt, he is more and more slumped on his sofa, he spreads his legs and caresses his lower abdomen”. Sonia Souid describes “not normal gestures during a professional meeting”. She says she felt “humiliated, hurt in the depths of [her] being in front of her president who [her] lacks respect”.
“He never touched me, he never held me down,” she says, “but the harassment went on for years. These are frequent calls and repeated invitations to dinner. Like this audio message from 2017, which she kept, and on which Noël Le Graët can be heard saying: “Sonia, I’m on my third bottle, third, and I’m waiting for you for the fourth . »
