The French Football Federation finds itself at the heart of a huge scandal. Based on numerous testimonies, it turns out that sexual abuse has been hidden by the FFF for about forty years.
Ten days after the revelations of the SoFoot newspaper concerning the sexual harassment that Noël Le Graët, president of the French Football Federation (FFF), exercises on some of its employees, the FFF is targeted by new terrible revelations.
On the josimarfootball.com site, the journalist Romain Molina denounces “40 years of silence” on the part of the FFF concerning cases of sexual abuse of children within it.
On condition of anonymity, a former member of the FFF board of directors agreed to speak to Josimar. “When something happens, you shut your mouth. This is how it works. Otherwise, I’m finished. They are too powerful. As soon as you talk about the abuse, you’re offside. It’s not only the FFF but also the LFP (professional football league), the clubs”denounces the source.
“I mean, have you seen how many cases we’ve been dealing with in the last two years? What have we done to protect our children?denounces the witness again.
Josimar reports “several cases of sexual abuse, blackmail and harassment, also towards underage players (boys and girls) involving coaches, scouts, agents and senior officials working in the French top flight.”
Among these cases, that of Angélique Roujas. Former French international with 51 caps and head coach of the women’s section of the Clairefontaine national training center, she was sacked in 2013 after the FFF learned that she had had sex with underage players, reports Josimar in his article.
A dismissal which did not prevent her from continuing to practice elsewhere thereafter, such as at FC Metz or Ligue 2 club ESOF La Roche, where she still works today.
In a document addressed to the public prosecutor dated October 30, 2013 and written by Noël Le Graët, we can read this: “A resident mentioned that Mrs. Angélique Roujas took advantage of her state of weakness and her hierarchical relationship to obtain such (intimate) relationships. The facts date back to 2004 and 2005, a period during which the residents concerned were in Clairefontaine.
“On September 30, 2013, during her preliminary interview, Mrs. Angélique Roujas denied the allegations, but nevertheless admitted having received boarders in her room at the boarding school. Voluntarily, we did not retain any criminal qualification in this letter of dismissal” . The FFF had dismissed Angélique Roujas 5 days earlier.
This letter, Le Graët wrote it first because the law obliges him to do so and then because he “was pressured to do so because national team players were threatening to go on strike“. Indeed, the players of the France team at the time threatened to strike if Ms. Roujas “was allowed to be part of the technical staff of the national team”.
They did nothing
As part of the investigation, a former international player agreed to testify anonymously. She says she has “been a victim at Clairefontaine, I know what happened and I know how hard it was to rebuild myself. Even today, I don’t want to talk about it publicly, because it’s painful and I’m not sure I’ll be supported..”
“I spoke to senior officials of the federation, including Brigitte Henriques, the vice-president at the time, but what happened? Nothing. They did nothing”she rebels.
Brigitte Henriques was then vice-president of the FFF at the time. The one who is today the president of the French Olympic Committee has managed this affair in a controversial way. “Brigitte Henriques basically told me to shut up”, confides a former executive of the FFF to Josimar. “She was very clear about Angélique Roujas. We didn’t talk about it.”
Many other cases are related by Romain Molina in his investigation. It should be noted that the FFF did not wish to answer the journalist’s questions during the investigation and did not react following the publication of the latter.
