Four and a half months before the World Cup, the French women’s national soccer team is without a coach. Corinne Diacre is fired after a revolt by several star players. Because these are also criticized by the association, there is a great need for clarification.
“Vive la Révolution” – the French women’s national soccer team is only four and a half months before the start of the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand without a coach. Corinne Diacre was fired by the French Football Association FFF after the players’ revolt and “irreversible” problems. But all is not well with that now. Because the rebellious and resigned players have also received a reprimand.
Captain Wendie Renard was the first of the players to announce her retirement at the end of February, followed shortly afterwards by Marie-Antoinette Katoto, Kadidiatou Diani and Perle Morroni. Among other things, they were concerned with the management style of the highly controversial trainer, who has led the team since 2017. Their contract should have run until after the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
It will now be dissolved earlier after a special commission dealing with the ex-players Laura Georges and Aline Riera, the president of the top club Olympique Lyon, Jean-Michel Aulas, and his Strasbourg counterpart Marc Keller with Diacre and the national team. “The numerous surveys have shown a very big break with the squad players and a discrepancy to the requirements made clear,” said the FFF. “This rift has reached a point of no return and is damaging the interests of the national team. While the FFF recognizes the commitment and seriousness of Corinne Diacre and her staff in carrying out their task, it seems that the observed dysfunctions appear to be irreversible in this context.”
Several successors in discussion
The group should now also identify candidates for the successor of Diacre. Philippe Diallo, who is interim in charge of the association after the resignation of ex-president Noel Le Graet, who was criticized for sexual harassment, has commissioned her to “talk to candidates who are interested in this task within eight to ten days would be”. According to RMC Sport, current Lyon coach Sonia Bompastor and Paris St. Germain coach Gérard Precheur are under discussion. The current national coach of Saudi Arabia, Hervé Renard, is said to be a popular candidate.
Bompastor and Precheur lead the two dominant teams in the French league, with Lyon and PSG only a point separating them. The 42-year-old Bompastor has been the head coach of Lyon since 2021, last year she won both the league and the Champions League. Between 2000 and 2012 she played 156 times for the French national team.
After Renard’s emotional resignation (“My face may hide the pain, but the heart is suffering … and I don’t want to suffer anymore.”) Bompastor pledged his full support to her player. “We need to be able to listen at all levels, be it at association or club level, and show that the players have the opportunity to express themselves and find solutions.”
So would it be the ideal solution to the national team’s problems? Would defending icon Renard and forwards Katoto and Diani then be happy to return and fight for the title at the World Cup? They had declared their resignation “until the necessary changes are implemented”. Apart from the fact that the appointment of Bompastor would tear a huge gap at Lyon – and whose president is a member of the selection committee, which probably also puts him in a quandary, the association does not seem to want to make it so easy for the revolutionaries.
Attack against revolutionaries
In its announcement, the FFF also condemned the maneuvers of the players. “The committee has also determined that the way in which the players express their criticism is no longer acceptable in the future.” In this way, the association probably wants to prevent it from appearing that it could be blackmailed in potential future disputes. Therefore, an additional position should be created in the management of the women’s national team, which stands between the coach and the executive committee.
Interim President Diallo said he had to choose between two “bad solutions”. “I chose sporting success and sporting performance. With a new profile and new means, the ball is in the hands of the players who have expressed their uneasiness – in the wrong way, in my opinion – and it is It is up to them to set high standards for themselves and for the French team. We have taken our responsibility and made sure that the French team has the best possible conditions to perform.” In doing so, he takes responsibility for the players and puts them under pressure with a view to the World Cup in a few months, but also with regard to the Olympic Games. You have to repay the change of coach with performance.
Criticism of the development of the team
It is unclear whether Renard and Co. will simply return to the team with little disruption after this criticism. None of them have commented on the dismissal. But they were also about more than just the controversial coach. The professionalization and development was also a reason for criticism for Renard: “We have to shift up a gear if we want to win a title with the French team,” she had denounced with a view to the European champions from England.
She didn’t want to travel to the World Cup “without the necessary means to get the trophy, a medal – I didn’t just want to be there,” Diani told Téléfoot. The support staff of the women’s team is significantly smaller than that of the men. Diani explained that treatments, for example, were only possible to a limited extent: “Initially access was practically forbidden, you really had to be injured to be entitled to a massage or treatment like in the club.” Diacre himself had no assistant coach and no special coach, for example for the offensive, to the side. She therefore made important sporting decisions largely alone, criticized Diani.
And so it was probably a mixture of sporting and interpersonal problems with the coach who has now been fired. Le Graet was her biggest supporter and apparently single-handedly extended her contract after the European Championship, which ended with France losing to Germany in the semi-finals. Diacre is considered strict and not exactly easy to deal with. Renard had already clashed with her, in 2017 she had to give up her captain’s armband. But then the two had apparently gotten together before the EM, Renard had gotten the bandage back. Ex-goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi had commented on Renard’s cry for help: “Three years ago I decided to withdraw from the French national team to denounce a situation that was psychologically untenable for me,” she wrote on Instagram. After the 2019 World Cup, Amandine Henry talked about crying players, and like Eugénie Le Sommer she was not nominated for the European Championship last year.
Diacre thinks “hate campaign”
Diacre herself had wanted to hold on to her job to the end. Her lawyer Christophe Ayela had sent a clear statement to the AFP news agency: “I am determined to continue my work and make France proud at the next World Cup.” She had led the national team since 2017, but she was not able to celebrate any success. The French are currently fourth in the world rankings behind Germany.
For more than ten days she has been the focus of “a smear campaign that amazes with its violence and dishonesty. My critics do not hesitate – without caring about the truth – to attack my personal and professional integrity four months before the World Cup,” the 48th -year-old Diacre announced. The revolt against them is “exclusively” about “settling personal scores”. She was unsuccessful with this argument.