The French Football Federation may have found a replacement for Florence Hardouin in the general management of the institution. Four candidates were auditioned on Wednesday: Jean-François Vilotte, Charline Avenel, Erwann Le Prévost and Najat Vallaud-Belkacem. Jean-François Vilotte would now be approached.
Lawyer Jean-François Vilotte has been chosen to become the general manager of the French Football Federation, a post vacant since the sidelining of Florence Hardouin, an internal source told AFP on Thursday, confirming information from RMC. The decision was taken on Wednesday after the last hearings, but it has not yet been made public.
The senior official, former director of cabinet at the Ministry of Sports when Jean-François Lamour held the position, has already assumed the function of “DG” within the French Tennis Federation twice, from 2007 to 2009 then from 2018 to 2021.
Known from the FFF
Arbitrator within the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Vilotte has already worked for the FFF with her lawyer’s hat, in particular to help the executive committee examine the pre-report of the General Inspectorate for Education, Sport and Research (IGESR), commissioned by the Ministry of Sports. The conclusions of this audit, fatal to former president Noël Le Graët, notably led to the dismissal of Florence Hardouin, general manager of the FFF since 2013, in February 2023. The former leader seized the Defender of Rights and industrial tribunals to contest this procedure.