Noël Le Graët was interviewed last Friday in Paris by a police officer from the brigade for the suppression of delinquency against the person (BRDP). The former president of the French Football Federation (FFF), from which he resigned last February, is being prosecuted for “moral and sexual harassment” following the opening of an investigation by the Paris Prosecutor’s Office in January 2023 after a report for “sexist outrage” made by auditors of the general inspection of education, sports and research carried out by the Ministry of Sports and its minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra due to dysfunction within the 3F .
“The hearing took place in a courteous and very professional manner,” confirms Maître Thierry Marembert, Noël Le Graët’s lawyer. Mr Le Graët answered the questions put to him as precisely as he could. Most of the things he was asked about were between 5 and 10 years old. » The former boss of the FFF is now waiting to know what follow-up will be given to this affair.
Le Graët denounces political interference
At the same time, Noël Le Graët filed two complaints: one for defamation against Amélie Oudéa-Castéra before the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) and another before the Paris administrative court to request the annulment of the report of the general inspection of the Ministry of Sports for violation of the principle of impartiality and independence through political interference.
Le Breton and his counsel have defended this thesis since the start of the affair a little over a year ago and decided to add to these two procedures the hearing of Florence Hardouin, former general director of the FFF dismissed in February last, before the parliamentary commission of inquiry. Hardouin declared to the deputies: “She took matters into her own hands. It was still she who mandated the inspection. She took it very, very seriously. Without this intervention from the minister, Mr. Noël Le Graët would certainly still be president of the Federation. It was she who ensured that article 40
be triggered,” confided the former leader of 3F about the role of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.
