Questioned by an audit highlighting his sexist behavior, the president of the FFF, Noël Le Graët, resigned on Tuesday during an Executive Committee ending a long soap opera. A strong man of French football in the 2010s, he always flirted with slippage on social issues, which ended up costing him his job.
It’s over. After long months of crisis, Noël Le Graët, withdrawn from the presidency of the French Football Federation (FFF) since the beginning of January, finally submitted his resignation on Tuesday February 28 during an Executive Committee (Comex) of the body . For more than a decade, he led French football with poignancy and political skill. But his end of reign will have come from yet another slippage and the lifting of the leaden screed which seemed to weigh on his practices and behavior within the FFF, further damaging the image of the 81-year-old “Menhir”.
At the Paris headquarters of the FFF, which he had led since 2011, Noël Le Graët warned the Executive Committee of his resignation, AFP learned from a member of this decisive Comex for the future of French football. Around the table, the members of this federal “government” paid him a “tribute”, according to the same source. The Comex expected to see the president give up his place on his own, after several months of turbulence around the leader. Philippe Diallo, the vice-president, will continue to act as interim head of the body.
>> To read also: Diallo, Platini, Keller… Who to succeed Noël Le Graët in the event of final departure?
A shrewd politician, Noël Le Graët still had one last card up his sleeve. In the wake of his resignation, Éric Borghini, member of the Executive Committee, announced that the Breton had been appointed to the Paris office of Fifa. “He will lead the Paris office. He was appointed because of his skills, expertise and experience,” explained his former ally. One – ultimate? – snub to the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, in open conflict with Noël Le Graët.
From food to football
Born on December 25 into a poor family in Côtes-d’Armor, the president of the FFF forged a national destiny for himself from Guingamp, where he made his fortune in the food industry, propelled the local club, En Before, from the amateur world to the European Cup and led the town hall.
The founder of the Le Graët group (800 employees), specializing in fishing, canned goods and frozen foods, established himself in footballing France by presiding over the Professional League from 1991 to 2000. The former representative in household appliances and hi- fi carried out a grooming of club management, with the establishment of the DNCG (the supervisory body for the financial health of French clubs) and collided head-on with Bernard Tapie at the time of the VA- OM (1993), which enhanced his stature.
The octogenarian, in place since 2011, has been able to weave a network beyond the socialist circle of his beginnings, offering himself a direct line with the Élysée, from François Hollande to Emmanuel Macron. Arrived at the head of the FFF on the ruins of Knysna and the debacle of the 2010 World Cup, Le Graët remains the builder of the second star won by the team of Didier Deschamps at the World Cup-2018. Under his magisterium, the “3F” was enriched by taking over control of the marketing rights linked to the Blues, a real goose that lays the golden egg.
Women’s football has also developed, with a surge in the number of licensees and increased visibility for the Championship with Canal+ as broadcaster and Arkema as title sponsor. His critics, however, insist on the momentum cut since the World Cup-2019 at home and the tensions surrounding the selection led by Corinne Deacon.
Murderous formulas or slippage?
Loyal to the state, tough on his adversaries, the Breton has become a master in the art of murderous formulas. The provocation, especially on social issues, has sometimes turned into a skid.
This is the case when he considers that racism “does not exist or hardly exists” in the world of football. His statement with sexist hints about the Blues who “can pull their hair out” as long as they win, also made waves.
More recently, his unconditional support for Qatar, controversial hosts of the 2022 World Cup, has raised eyebrows. “It’s not insoluble that, it’s strokes of paint”, he says for example in the program Complément d’Enquête which, with supporting images, shows him the cramped rooms infested with cockroaches in which crowd of subcontractor workers from the Hotel des Bleus.
It is especially his release on Zidane, at the beginning of January which finally finished shaking the reputation of Noël Le Graët. Attacking the French icon who would have liked to take over the reins of the France team after Didier Deschamps, he scratched him in an unfiltered interview.
“I wouldn’t even have taken him on the phone,” he blurted out about “Zizou. “To tell him what? ‘Hello sir, don’t worry, look for another club, I just agreed with Didier’?” To a question about Brazil’s supposed interest in the former No. 10 of the 1998 world champions and European champions 2000, he added: “I don’t care, he can go where he wants, in a club, he would have as many as he wants in Europe, a big club.”
From Kylian Mbappé, who judged on Twitter that “we don’t disrespect the legend like that”, to Zidane’s ex-teammates in blue Youri Djorkaeff and Laurent Blanc, via Real Madrid, outraged by “unworthy” words, Noël Le Graët was unanimously against him, finishing to mount public opinion against his person.
Sexual harassment
In reality, Noël Le Graët had been in turmoil for several months and the publication in the magazine So Foot, on September 8, of a long investigation entitled “My fede will crack” which presented him, on the basis of anonymous testimonies, as a leader overwhelmed by events, also having a very questionable behavior with his employees. The specialized magazine mentioning sexual harassment. Accusations serious enough that prompted the Ministry of Sports to launch an audit mission.
The summary of the audit mission, delivered at the beginning of February, is without appeal: the “drifts of behavior” of the president of the French Football Federation “are incompatible with the exercise of his functions and the requirement of exemplarity which is his attached”.
“The hearings conducted by the mission brought to light the inappropriate behavior of Mr. Le Graët vis-à-vis women,” reads this summary of the final report. “The mission not only notes comments and text messages from Mr. Le Graët, ambiguous for some and of a clearly sexual nature for others, but also points to the late schedule of the mailings, their repetitive nature and the nature of the recipients. – women placed under his authority and/or in a dependent relationship.”
Charges that ended up costing him his job. However, he didn’t decide to keep a low profile, agreeing to lead Fifa’s Paris office. According to L’Équipe, he also intends to “clear his honor”. Released from his duties at the FFF, he should find himself in a position to do so. He could, as a first step, bring proceedings to have the inspection report carried out by the Ministry of Sports canceled.
With AFP
