After his resignation from the post of the FFF on Tuesday February 28, Noël Le Graët counters attack once again in the media
An exit through the small door. Noël Le Graët is no longer the president of the FFF, but was quick to bounce back since he was immediately appointed to the Paris office of Fifa to bring his expertise to Gianni Infantino. If his professional future in football is no longer threatened, Noël Le Graët wants to clear his honor and start a legal action against the Minister of Sports and the audit report by filing a complaint for defamation against the Minister of Sports Amelie Oudea-Castera. “I will challenge the report. My lawyers will do so by all legal means available to them. They will challenge the irregularity of the administrative investigation within the Federation and will request the cancellation of the mission’s report. investigation. The investigation of which I was the subject was carried out against, in total disregard of my rights and of the adversarial principle, he continues. It was judge and jury and that is not possible , even though she claims not. (…) She called me yesterday morning (Monday) saying that she wanted to talk. I said to her, “Hello Minister, later, please”. And I hung up. In the afternoon, I had a long time with President (Emmanuel) Macron.”
Questioned by RTL on Wednesday March 1 after the accusations against her, the Minister of Sports pleaded not guilty and spoke of a poorly controlled line of defense. “I find it distressing, this defense strategy does not fool many people. I repeat it, I remained polite, I never insulted anyone, I never called him a stalker. We did our job which consisted to listen to a certain number of people who had testimonies. More than 115 hearings were carried out, a thorough, methodical, coherent, rigorous work. It is the prosecutor who, in view of the elements transmitted to him, in application of this obligation to report which decided that there was reason to open an investigation for acts of moral and sexual harassment. The investigation will tell the things.
What were the findings of the audit?
The conclusion of the audit mission on the “dysfunctions” at the FFF showed that the president’s “behavioural excesses” “are incompatible with the performance of his duties and the requirement of exemplarity attached to him”. The document from the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (IGESR) denounces “inappropriate public positions”, “inappropriate behavior […] towards women” with “SMS ambiguous for some and clearly sexual in nature for others”. An attitude “accentuated by excessive alcohol consumption”. The inspectors “invite the federal authorities to examine this situation in application of the statutory provisions”.
Noël Le Graët counterattacks. Indirectly with a statement sent to AFP Thursday, February 2 by his lawyers, the president of the FFF wants to clear his honor. Florence Bourg and Thierry Marembert, lawyers for the latter, denounced a pre-audit carried out about the FFF and its president “which looks like an indictment”. They assure that the ruler will “firmly defend his honor”. “The virulence of the words used with regard to Mr. Le Graët is surprising in view of the emptiness of its factual basis, which is based on truncated and anonymous elements and testimonies”.
The lawyers claim that the former president of Guingamp feels a “deep sense of injustice” in the face of this audit mission, which they say is subject to “political and media pressure which could only bias it”, and which takes the form of a “legitimacy trial”. Noël Le Graët has until February 13 to respond to the partial report sent to him. “Despite our serious concerns about the inspectors’ ability to extricate themselves from the political and media influences that have constantly weighed on them, we will respond to this working document within the deadlines given to us so that it is properly recognized measures the probity of Mr. Le Graët” conclude the lawyers.
Despite the many accusations, evidence, testimonies, Noël Le Graët does not intend to resign quickly from his post. On RTL, Florence Bourg, his lawyer, denounces the conditions of the investigation. “At this stage, for the moment, he will make his decision quietly and certainly not under pressure from the minister, since there is a big political influence, she regretted. He will make his decision quietly, he will not There is no fire at the French Football Federation. He will take his time. He has a feeling of total injustice and rightly so because this report and this investigation have come about in an outrageous way”. I am sorry to tell you that there are no text messages of a clearly sexual nature in the report”, affirms the lawyer. For the latter, it is “an execution report to kill Noël Le Graet”.
For the moment, the president of the FFF is “withdrawn” until the final publication of the audit. The latter was launched by the Ministry of Sports a few weeks ago with a view to analyzing the management and management methods within the institution after the publication by the magazine So Foot of an investigation into serious alleged dysfunctions .
“We will have conclusions which are rather around the end of January which will then require having a contradictory stage with the leaders of the FFF, we will have a restitution rather around mid-February” explained the Minister of Sports at the launch of the investigations in December 2022.
According to information from several media at the end of January, the members of the executive committee of the Federation (Comex) should now try to push Noël Le Graët to resign at their next meeting on February 9. The former president of Guingamp would have opened the possibility of a departure, especially after the opening of the legal tab.
The inspectors in charge of the audit carried out within the (FFF) had indeed issued, as of January 13, a report to the Paris public prosecutor concerning sexist insults, opening a new procedure, some of the acts reported in the audit being liable to be sanctioned by French justice.
Noël Le Graët is therefore also under the threat of French justice. AFP reported on Tuesday January 17 that an investigation has been opened for moral and sexual harassment. According to Le Monde, the opening of a procedure results from the testimony of Sonia Souid, agent of several French international players, collected by the auditors of the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (IGESR). The IGESR having subsequently made a report to the justice system.
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed with AFP the opening of a preliminary investigation, the investigations were entrusted to the Brigade of repression against the delinquency with the people. The investigation would also focus on many other testimonies published by the press.
After this announcement, the Breton leader was quick to react. Noël Le Graët denied in a press release written by his lawyers and sent to AFP “all (the) accusations of moral or sexual harassment”. If he said he was surprised to learn this information via the press, he rejected all the accusations and denounced the interference of the Ministry of Sports as well as the political pressure around this “case”.
According to information from RMC, the IGESR first issued a note to the Paris prosecutor’s office to describe the facts likely to be reprehensible in the hearings they have been conducting for several weeks. In a second step, the inspectors brought the testimonies in order to support the alleged facts. The prosecution then opened the investigation of the head of “sexual and moral harassment”, considering that the sexist outrages could have been repeated and that in this case, they therefore constitute harassment. The goal for the magistrates is now to see if he had a “system of moral and sexual harassment put in place in the context of work”.
The first accusations against Noël Le Graët date back several months and were relayed in particular by the independent journalist Romain Molina and So Foot in September 2022. Based on numerous testimonies, the magazine’s investigation mentioned “sexual” text messages which would have been sent by Noël Le Graët to young women, with explicit proposals: “I prefer blondes, so if that tells you…”; “You look awfully curvy, I’d put you in my bed!”
These SMS would have been sent to current or past collaborators who then testified anonymously in the monthly. “It’s very simple, he jumps on anything that moves”, explained in particular a former administrative officer. “Everyone is aware at the Federation”, said the source again, “it has been going on for ten years”. According to So Foot, several women have been forced to resign in recent years because they felt “sexually harassed, but also morally”.
Radio France also unveiled on Wednesday October 12 other damning testimonies for the president of the FFF. “With me, Noël Le Graët was really clumsy, confided a witness. He told me that he wanted to take me home. He did not text me. At that time, he was not a pro on the phone. But they were repeat invitations to come and have dinner with him.” She says, still according to public radio, that one day the president of the FFF said to her: “If something happens between us, don’t worry, nobody will know.”
On Tuesday, January 10, Sonia Souid, player’s agent, spoke face to face in the media and in particular in L’Equipe. Very moved, she in turn denounced the inappropriate attitude of Noël Le Graët on several occasions. In a long interview, she recounts the “permanent drag” she would have suffered when she only dreamed of one thing, “doing her job and promoting women’s football”.
Noël Le Graët would have taken advantage of his situation to attract him to his home, claiming a meeting with Brigitte Henriques, in charge of women’s football at the FFF. Enthusiastic, Sonia Souid explains that the latter will never come to the meeting and that she will have to deal with a seductive Le Graët, in her apartment, with two glasses of champagne.
“I’m disconcerted. It’s still the president. I’m disappointed. I had to change color. I left, telling him that I was going to join my fiancé. He let me go. Afterwards, he m called regularly to invite me to dinner…”, she explains today. “I have voicemails, and a few text messages: ‘Are you available tomorrow night? I insist.’ Or he writes me: ‘I miss you.’ invite to matches: excuses to see me,” she added. Charges taken up on BFMTV.
From the revelations of So Foot, the FFF attacked the magazine for defamation. On Wednesday October 26, in a very long interview with Le Parisien, the president of the FFF Noël Le Graët had rejected all the accusations and denounced a cabal against him. “These are not accusations, but rumors that are being circulated on the basis of anonymous testimonies. I totally and firmly deny it. I have never harassed anyone,” he said firmly at first.
And to put forward the thesis of a plot against him to bring him down. “I have the weakness to think so. It’s so absurd. I tried to look for a face, a person… For several days, my name was thrown out to the ground. I was decked out with all the evils. I took a wave in the face. With the Twitter court, some media prosecutors, it becomes a horror. Enough is enough. It hurts me terribly today…”
At the exit of the Comex on January 11, which recorded its withdrawal, Eric Borghini, a member of the latter, indicated that Noël Le Graët had again sworn to have done nothing. “We got to the bottom of things. We started by listening to our president, who started the Comex by telling us ‘I didn’t do anything, I swear on your head to all that I didn’t do anything and that the audit report will be very positive for me, there will be nothing against me’. Noël Le Graët would have himself offered to stand down, until the audit report is studied by the committee executive.
Is the Le Graët case a symptom of broader abuses within the French Football Federation? In a video shared on Youtube on September 16, independent journalist Romain Molina explained that various abuses suffered within the FFF had been ignored for decades. He referred to alleged facts that began in the 1980s with Francis-Pierre Coché, who was then the coach of the France women’s team and allegedly sexually harassed players so that they could join the France team.
“The administrations have succeeded, the leaders have succeeded, but in the end, it is almost the same system of stifling business”, explained the columnist then. He took the example of coach Angélique Roujas, who was fired by the FFF for taking advantage of minors. According to Romain Molina, everyone in the FFF knew about it at the time, but the leader had nevertheless managed to keep her coaching licenses and was fired many years after the fact.
Romain Molina has also been pointing out for several months that FFF leaders have been made aware of these actions, but that no one has done anything. Thus, Brigitte Henriques, number 2 of the Federation, would have assured a player that she could not do anything. The author of the survey assures that some families and some players did not dare to speak out of fear.
Others, members of amateur clubs or families of members, have sent emails and letters for cases of pedocrime to the FFF. According to the journalist, they did not receive any assistance or response in return. The French Football Federation would not have informed the Ministers of Sports and the competent authorities of the facts entrusted to it. “If it goes to the end, we will realize that the Fed, obviously, was aware and failed in its public service mission”, assures Romain Molina.
Already criticized at the head of the FFF at almost 82 years old, Noël Le Graët did not survive an interview given to RMC Sport on Sunday January 8. At the microphone of “Bartoli Time”, the president of the federation had commented on the renewal of Didier Deschamps as coach of the France team and deemed the Zidane rumor unfounded to take the lead of the Blues. “I wouldn’t even have taken him on the phone,” said a visibly annoyed and freewheeling Le Graët when it came to commenting on Zizou’s future and his possible departure for Brazil. “Zidane in Brazil? I don’t care, he can go wherever he wants! He can go wherever he wants, in a club. In the national team, I hardly believe it when it comes to him.”
Minutes after his remarks, Kylian Mbappé himself defended Zinedine Zidane in a scathing tweet amid public outcry against the Federation president: “Zidane is France, we don’t disrespect the legend like That.” A reaction that will be welcomed by many personalities, suggesting a probably deleterious atmosphere within the FFF. The Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra will also not fail to reframe Noël Le Graët. “Statements again above ground with the added bonus this time of a shameful lack of respect, which hurts us all, to a legend of football and sport: a ‘president’ of the first sports federation in France should not say that, estimated the member of the government. Apologies for this too much word about Zinedine Zidane please.”
Faced with the controversy, the president of the FFF had published a press release on Monday January 9 with AFP, speaking of awkward remarks and apologizing to Zinedine Zidane. “I would like to apologize for these remarks which absolutely do not reflect my thoughts, nor my consideration for the player he was and the coach he has become. I gave an interview to RMC which I did not should not have granted because he was looking for controversy by opposing Didier to Zinedine Zidane, two monuments of French football. I admit that I made awkward remarks which created a misunderstanding. Zinedine Zidane knows the immense esteem that I have for him, like all the French”, wrote Noël Le Graët. According to information from Le Parisien, the president of the FFF had to call the world champion to explain his remarks and again apologize.
These excuses will probably not be enough. The Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra will denounce “words are worrying as they show that it is possible that things will go off the rails again in the future” and will express “a form of weariness, not to say exasperation, with regard to words that we no longer want to hear and attitudes that we no longer want to see”, underlining the “essential dimension of representation” of the president of the FFF and a “bankruptcy, with a word that flinches, a word in wheel freely, sometimes gravely, repeatedly”. Followed by other members of the government and of the majority, the minister will add that “these successive exits from the road damage the image of our country” and that “our great players deserve better than what they have today in the head of their federation”. A pressure that offered little choice to the Executive Committee.
For the Ministry of Sports, the internal investigation will “show that the FFF does not do anything, particularly in terms of checking the integrity of supervisors in clubs within the framework of the protection of licensees and the fight against all forms of violence and exclusion, which must not be forgotten, both in terms of prevention and action”. As for that of justice, it could go much further in the sanctions.
