A last meeting and a handshake before moving on to the new year: Didier Deschamps and Noël Le Graët met this Thursday, as had been planned for several days.
According to our information, the meeting therefore took place this Thursday in the offices of Noël Le Graët, in Guingamp. This date had been agreed between the two men for a week, as we had written and as the president of the FFF had announced in an interview with Ouest-France. If the ins and outs of their discussion have not yet filtered, the purpose of their meeting was, unsurprisingly, to discuss the terms of a possible extension of Deschamps on the bench of the France team.
In recent weeks, the trend has been more for an extension of Deschamps. But many things had to be discussed between the two men, in particular the duration of the future contract (2 years until Euro 2024? 2 years and 2 more optional depending on the result at Euro 2024? 4 years until at the next World Cup?), but also the prerogatives of the coach and his staff on everything related to the organization and stewardship of the Blues. Contacted by The Parisian, Noël Le Graët confirmed that the meeting had taken place but kicked into touch on the content of it: “We talked about En Avant Guingamp, that’s all! “. The decision could be announced on January 6 at the next FFF executive committee.
The extension of Deschamps on the bench of the Blues, in view of the course once again crowned with success during the World Cup in Qatar despite the final lost against Argentina on penalties (3-3, 4-2), remains the most plausible option. Even before the start of the Qatari World Cup, the deal between Deschamps and Le Graët was very clear: if France reached at least the semi-finals, Deschamps had total control over its future. Since the quarter-final won against England, the tendency was already for the former captain of the France team to remain the coach at least until 2024, date of the next big international deadline, namely the Euro in Germany.
In recent months, the FFF and Noël Le Graët have been at the heart of cases revealed by several French media, concerning the sending of sexual messages from the president of the federation to employees or several sex scandals which would have been suffocated by the instance. In September, the Ministry of Sports had, in response, ordered an audit from the FFF, the results of which are expected in February. These cases, to which were added the controversial remarks of Le Graët made about the living conditions of workers in Qatar or on the armband “One Love”, had somewhat polluted the preparation of the Blues for the World Cup.
