President Noel Le Graet“no longer has the necessary legitimacy to administer” the French Football Federation (FFF) taking into account in particular “of his behavior towards women”points to the provisional report of the audit mission on the FFF, of which AFP obtained a copy on Monday January 30.
This interim report from the General Inspectorate for Education, Sport and Research (IGESR), commissioned by the Ministry of Sports last fall, also notes that the body’s policy on gender-based violence and sex is “neither effective nor efficient”. The leaders of the FFF have until February 13 to take note of these conclusions and respond to them, before publication of the final and contradictory report.
“The mission considers that, given his behavior towards women, his public statements and the failures of the governance of the FFF, Noël Le Graët no longer has the necessary legitimacy to administer and represent French football”can we read.
Moral and sexual harassment
Withdrawn since January 11, and targeted by an investigation for moral and sexual harassment, Noël Le Graët (81) is not spared by this preliminary report. His attitude towards women “can be qualified at least as sexist”, say the inspectors. The mission also collected testimonies relating to the actions of the Breton leader “likely to receive a criminal qualification”.
The inspectors, who on January 13 made a report to the public prosecutor of Paris, indicated that they would transmit additional information to justice. It is on the basis of this report that the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation in mid-January.
Laid off as a precautionary measure on January 11, the general manager of the FFF, Florence Hardouin, is also targeted by the IGESR inspectors for her management who, they write, “can be described as brutal”but no “harassing”.
A “toxic” leadership tandem
His relations with Le Graët are described as “toxic” : “The Chairman-CEO duo has reached its limits”believe the auditors of the IGESR, referring to “clan logic” of management and a “very self-centered vision of power”.
The mission, which proposes 18 recommendations to the FFF, also singles out the body’s policy on preventing and combating sexist and sexual violence, which “is not a priority deployed rationally by the FFF in the territories”according to her.
Severely shaken for five months by journalistic investigations, testimonies from women accusing him of sexist and inappropriate behavior, or by his own sweeping statements about Zinédine Zidane, Noël Le Graët is going through the most delicate period of his mandate. started in 2011. The FFF “will not communicate its own conclusions and decisions after the delivery of the final audit commissioned by the Ministry of Sports”reacted the body in a press release.
