Two months before the World Cup, Noël le Graët, the “Menhir” of French football, in the hot seat

Published on: 09/17/2022 – 15:56 Serial malfunctions, a president in the hot seat for his management and his behavior with employees… the French football federation and its leader, Noël Le Graët, are under enormous pressure since the revelations of the magazine So Foot, which resulted on Friday in the launch of an audit by the Ministry of Sports. Two months before the World Cup in Qatar, the atmosphere is thickening at the French Football Federation (FFF). A strongman in French football for more than a decade, Noël Le Graët led the Federation with a firm hand and authority thanks to his political skill before the end of his twilight reign: controversial statements, contested management and suspicious behavior. The Breton’s third full term at the head of the FFF strongly resembles a Stations of the Cross. At 80, the “Menhir” seems weakened by a succession of cases which concern both the governance of the body he has chaired since 2011 and practices inherited from another age. Le Graët has successes for him undeniable athletes (final of Euro-2016, Mondial-2018), shaped by the solid tandem formed with the coach Didier Deschamps, which made it possible to get the Blues out of the black hole after the trauma of Knysna and the famous strike of the training during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. He also restored the finances of the “3F”, thanks in particular to the golden contract signed with the equipment manufacturer Nike, and developed women’s practice. But the character also has its gray areas, such as its risky protrusions to minimize the problem of homophobia and racism in football, for example. The Ministry of Sports launches an audit His case worsened with the publication in the magazine So Foot, on September 8, of a long investigation entitled “My fed will crack” which presents him, on the basis of anonymous testimonies, as a leader overwhelmed by events, also having a very questionable behavior with his employees. According to the monthly, Le Graët sent sexual text messages to FFF employees. The Federation took a week before reacting by announcing Thursday the filing of a complaint “for defamation against the magazine So Foot because of the seriously defamatory accusations” of the article. Accusations serious enough which pushed the Ministry of Sports to launch an audit on Friday. Two months before the World Cup in Qatar (November 20-December 18), the pressure is enormous around the FFF and its leader, whose mandate theoretically ends in 2024. Born into a poor family in Côtes-d’Armor, a December 25, Le Graët forged a national destiny from Guingamp, where he made his fortune in the food industry, propelled the En Avant du monde amateur to the European Cup and led the town hall under the label of the Socialist Party. Fallen into the pot of football “at the age of seven”, the octogenarian has always kept one foot in Brittany and another in Paris, where he took the lead in the Professional League in the 1990s, before conquering the FFF in 2011.” Political monster “It is as boss of the League that this former representative in household appliances and hi-fi has established himself in football France, by cleaning up the management of clubs and colliding head-on with Bernard Tapie at the time of the VA-OM affair. This “political monster”, according to the formula of a n close, was 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. Loyal with the State, tough with his adversaries, he became a master in the art of murderous formulas, as his predecessor at the FFF, Fernand Duchaussoy (2010-2011), could see. “He was beaten, this nice gentleman. I have a lot of esteem for him, but where does he come from? A little bit of mothballs, right?” Le Graët, recovered from lymphoid leukemia announced in 2018 , is however never far from leaving the road, as when he considers that racism “does not exist or little” in the world of football. His statement with sexist hints about the Blues who “can pull their hair” as long as they win, also made waves. Arrived on the ruins of Knysna, Le Graët is the builder of the second star won by the team of Didier Deschamps at the Mondial-2018. Under her leadership, the FFF was enriched by taking over control of marketing rights linked to the Blues. Women’s football has also developed, with a surge in the number of licensees, increased visibility for the championship (with Canal+ as a broadcaster and Arkema as title sponsor), even if the French team has still not won the slightest international title. The founder of the Le Graët group (780 employees), specializing in fishing, canning and frozen foods, can supply frequently the gazettes with sensational declarations, but he sees himself as “someone quite reserved” who “does not seek the news at all costs”, as he had slipped to AFP. A form of anti-portrait in short. With AFP