Embattled French football chief Le Graët continues fight to retain power
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Loading... - Reeta Korhonen
- 20 Feb 2023
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Noël Le Graët, French football's most powerful administrator, continued his rearguard action on Thursday to remain in his job despite a government audit damning his sleazy late-night texts to female employees, lax management and cronyism.
A day after the report into the machinations at the Fédération Française de Football, (FFF) was published, Le Graët's lawyer, Florence Bourg, hit out at the findings.
"He has a feeling of total injustice, and rightly so, because this report and this investigation have come about in a scandalous way," she told French broadcaster RTL.
The three investigators from the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (IGESR) interviewed more than 100 people during their four-month inquiry.
They were told of late-night text messages to women whose jobs depended on Le Graët. Some were ambiguous and others were clearly sexual, the inquiry uncovered.
But Bourg disputed the findings. "I'm sorry to say that there are no clearly sexual SMS in the report."
Change
Le Graët took over from Fernand Duchaussoy as FFF president in June 2011. The 81-year-old is credited with boosting the FFF's coffers with a series of lucrative sponsorship deals. France's fortunes on the playing fields have also flourished.
Under the World Cup winning skipper Didier Deschamps as head coach, France reached the finals at the 2016 European championships, claimed the 2018 World Cup and the 2021 Nations League. They were runners-up in the 2022 World Cup final.
However, despite a litany of gaffes, Le Graët managed to retain one of the country's most prestigious administrative jobs.
His hold over the FFF started to weaken last month following a radio interview with RMC in which he adopted a condescending tone towards the former France international Zinedine Zidane.
When asked if Zidane – who coached Real Madrid to 11 trophies including three consecutive Champions Leagues – had approached him about taking over as France boss, Le Graët told the interviewer he would not have bothered to take the call.
Sorry
Even though Le Graët apologised for comments that he accepted as ill-advised, the blunder opened the door to the simmering resentment. Read More…
