After a turbulent season, the French Football Federation (FFF) convenes its first General Assembly on Saturday (9 a.m.) since the resignation of Noël Le Graët, a meeting which must confirm Philippe Diallo as president until 2024.
In a hotel in the west of Paris, some 200 elected officials from French football – amateur and professional – are invited to decide on the identity of the leader who is to complete the current term. After eleven years at the helm of the most powerful sports federation in France, Le Graët could not bring it to an end, victim of an accumulation of controversies and accusations which pushed him towards the end FEBRUARY. The Breton was still invited to the GA and he is expected on Saturday morning in the 17th arrondissement, even if he will not be, this time, the master of ceremonies of these general states of French football.
Its vice-president Philippe Diallo, who has become interim number 1 since the start of the year, is seeking the confidence of elected officials (clubs, local leagues, districts) to continue his action until the Elective Assembly at the end of 2024. shadow and files, appreciated for his discretion as for his listening, this former boss of the union of professional clubs (59 years old) has a high rating to symbolize the appeasement desired by the middle after months of turbulence. Even if some opponents tried, at the beginning of the spring, to bring together enough elected officials to overthrow the current executive committee of the “3F”, the confirmation of Diallo on Saturday seems acquired in the eyes of all football players interviewed in recent weeks. . “After a few months of exercise, I think we can say that the Federation works. We are even in the process of starting its transformation. There is a need to find appeasement and I hope to have already contributed to this, ”assured the leader in early April in an interview with AFP.
Professional football, which is putting its TV rights back on the market at the start of the school year, is counting on this profile in particular to ensure a smooth and stable transition, far from the tumult of autumn and winter. Accusations of moral and sexual harassment targeting Le Graët, controversies and other slippages have indeed accompanied the start of the French football season, pinned down in February by an audit by the General Inspectorate for Education, Sport and Research. (IGESR), overwhelming for the “Fédé” as for its leaders.
Even if calm has gradually returned, the tremors are never far away, like the historic revolt of the players of the France team which resulted in the replacement of coach Corinne Deacon by Hervé Renard. Thursday, other accusations of “moral and sexual harassment” issued in the magazine So Foot by a former referee currently federal coordinator of amateur arbitration, Nicolas Pottier, again darkened the horizon. The FFF immediately launched an internal investigation into the federal management of arbitration.
In this uncertain context, the Federal Assembly must also vote on the appointment of two future members of the executive committee of the FFF, the district presidents Claude Delforge and Alexandre Gougnard. With the resignation of Le Graët and that of Jamel Sandjak, president of the League of Paris-Île de France in disagreement with the direction taken by the “Comex”, two places had indeed been released in this “government” of French football . The Federation will also present its provisional budget for the 2023-24 season and this will be in deficit, a rarity.
The reduction in audiovisual rights for the Coupe de France, the dismissal of Corinne Deacon, the effort of 4 to 5 million additional euros granted in favor of women’s football and a future Professional Women’s League thus partly explain the forecast deficit. estimated at 4.7 million euros. But this could be filled, especially if the French women’s team shines at the World Cup this summer in Australia. The FFF is indeed counting on a quarter-final in its financial forecasts. A better course for the Blues would be a welcome bonus for the federal coffers.
