Philippe Diallo, the president of the French Football Federation (FFF), who spoke to our newspaper recently, will receive representatives of Ligue 1 teams on April 3, to discuss with them the crisis that the French arbitration, we learned from the clubs.
In a press release published Tuesday, 17 L1 clubs react to the statements of the president of the FFF made in Lyon, just after the meeting of the French team lost to Germany (2-0) on Saturday.
Mr. Diallo expressed his confidence in Antony Gautier, the boss of French referees, whose 17 L1 clubs had requested the departure in an open letter on March 22.
The boss of the FFF also called for “appeasement” and recalled that his body had jurisdiction over arbitration and “guaranteed its independence”, insisting on the impossible “interference” of professional clubs on these questions.
The day before, 17 of the 18 L1 clubs, with the 17 million euros they pay into the arbitration budget, had requested the departure of Antony Gautier, “with whom dialogue and trust are definitively broken”.
In their press release on Tuesday, these same 17 clubs, which are still not named, “firmly refute the accusation of interference in arbitration”, reaffirm their questioning “legitimate for months and in a manner completely unrelated to governance issues , on the arbitration authorities”, and finally welcome an awareness, Philippe Diallo having “agreed to grant Ligue 1 clubs a meeting”.
This will take place on Wednesday April 3, we learned from the clubs.
This passing of arms comes at a time when French refereeing is going through a very serious crisis, between controversies over the decisions of officials, use of VAR and a battle of egos. This situation led to the dismissal by the FFF of Stéphane Lannoy, technical director of refereeing delegated to the professional sector, reputed to be close to the leaders of the professional clubs but contested by some of the referees and at odds with Antony Gautier.
Until the end of the season, Antony Gautier will act as interim manager, holding three hats, that of boss of French referees, that of manager of professional referees and that of manager of VAR.
