Football: the audit on the FFF soon to be completed, the floor is in Le Graët

After three and a half months of investigation, the audit mission within the French Football Federation (FFF) is entering its final phase with, as of Monday, January 30, the possibility for Noël Le Graët and Florence Hardouin to respond to charges leveled against them

Football: the audit on the FFF soon to be completed, the floor is in Le Graët

After three and a half months of investigation, the audit mission within the French Football Federation (FFF) is entering its final phase with, as of Monday, January 30, the possibility for Noël Le Graët and Florence Hardouin to respond to charges leveled against them. The president of the FFF and its director general, both sidelined on January 11, will be able to read the extracts from the pre-report indicting them and respond to them, within ten days from Monday.

They alone will have access to the parts – dependent – ​​concerning them. In the same way, Philippe Diallo may make observations after reading the passages relating to the malfunctions at 87, boulevard de Grenelle, the headquarters of the body, in his capacity as interim president. This restricted access to the provisional report of the General Inspectorate for Education, Sport and Research (IGESR) responds to a regulatory provision. In fact, it should also limit any leaks in the press between now and the publication of the final and contradictory document, expected in mid-February.

The pressure remains maximum for Noël Le Graët, all-powerful boss of the FFF since 2011, severely shaken for five months by journalistic investigations, testimonies (mainly anonymous) from women accusing him of sexist and inappropriate behavior, and his own statements to the punch on Zinedine Zidane.

The first storm occurred in early September with a file from the magazine So Foot entitled "Sex, power, money... My Fed will crack", in which were pointed, pell-mell, the management deemed authoritarian by Florence Hardouin, the working atmosphere "toxic" and sexual harassment charges against the Breton leader.

These press elements led the Ministry of Sports to announce on September 16 the opening of an audit and control mission "on the management of the Federation and the respect of the obligations attached thereto". This began a month later with the hearing of the main parties concerned. At 81, Noël Le Graët is personally going through the most delicate period of his long term, which began on the ruins of the Knysna fiasco at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

His solitary management at the head of the Federation, the overwhelming testimonies and his sometimes uncontrolled media outings, as on Zidane, isolated him as never before. His situation became almost untenable when Sonia Souid, a players' agent, denounced Le Graët's insistent attitude on the telephone or during professional meetings in the press: "He told me alone, in his apartment , very clearly, that if I wanted him to help me, I had to go to the pan, ”she accused.

This first face-to-face testimony prompted the courts to open an investigation for sexual and moral harassment. Noël Le Graët denied the allegations and castigated the leaks in the press, such as the "numerous interferences and political pressures". "Mr. Le Graët had neither the opportunity to take cognizance of the elements concerning him, nor the opportunity to present his observations in defense", denounced his lawyers in a press release.

In recent days, new testimonies have been added to the file, that of a former collaborator who compared in an article in Presse Océan Le Graët to a "hunter, sick with zigouigoui" and that of Aline Riera, member of the comex of the FFF, revealed by L'Équipe, which, during the meeting on January 19, referred to "heavy words" and "a repetition of inappropriate words" in the past of the president of the FFF.

The executive committee of the FFF, from the list presented by Noël Le Graët during his last re-election in 2021 (until December 2024), pushed the latter to step down on January 11. And decided to lay off Hardouin, general manager since 2013, with disputed working methods.

Pending the audit, the DG did not speak publicly, but his entourage denounced to the newspaper Le Monde "acts of sexual and moral harassment that she suffered from Noël Le Graët". Relaunched by Agence France-Presse, the entourage of the leader did not wish to give more details.

The "government" of French football is now awaiting the conclusions of the audit to adopt a common position. An extraordinary meeting of the comex will be organized once the report is delivered, with the fate of Le Graët at the heart of the debates.

According to an internal source, the Breton leader assured that he would resign in the event of a negative report about him. In this hypothesis, Philippe Diallo would retain the bar of the FFF at least until the federal assembly in June.