Coach Corinne Deacon, criticized by several internationals, says she is “fully determined to carry out (her) mission” at the 2023 World Cup with the France team despite a “destabilizing operation”, in a press release sent Wednesday to the AFP. “In view of the shameful media outburst of recent days, I nevertheless wish to publicly reaffirm […] that I am fully determined to carry out my mission and above all, to bring honor to France at the next World Cup” , says the boss of the Blue on the eve of a federal executive committee where her future will be discussed.
Deacon, in office since 2017 and under contract until the summer of 2024, is the target of criticism from France team executives, including captain Wendie Renard and star attackers Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Kadidiatou Diani, who have decided to withdraw from the selection.
The coach claims to have “decided not to respond” at first, in the name of “the interest of the national team” and says to have “endured, not without feeling great suffering, the display of slander, untruths and ambitions of each other”. Deacon was auditioned on Tuesday, according to her lawyer, by the members of the federal commission of which Jean-Michel Aulas, the boss of Olympique Lyonnais, is a member, who has revealed his wish to see her leave in recent days.
“I would like to thank Mr. Jean-Michel Aulas for having assured me, in the light of the information already collected by the commission, that he was ready to reconsider his public remarks by now considering the situation with objectivity and impartiality,” she says. The executive committee of the French Football Federation, where Mr. Aulas sits, meets Thursday in Paris to discuss in particular the future of Deacon at the head of the Blue.
