The reaction will not be long in coming. Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castera called on the FFF’s executive committee (Comex) on Monday to “take its responsibilities” following the controversial statements of its president Noël Le Graët concerning Zinédine Zidane, without explicitly asking for the leader’s resignation. “It is important that the Comex of the French Football Federation takes the full measure of the situation, in a time of exchange that I invite it to have. I am committed to the autonomy of the federations being a reality and every time the governing bodies take their responsibilities, I consider it a victory for French sport”, declared Amélie Oudéa-Castera during a press conference organized at the headquarters of the ministry.
“There are eminent personalities within the Comex who have demonstrated their value, their efficiency, their vision and their sense of responsibility. I know that they will demonstrate this again in the weeks to come and that they will be able to weigh in to put this Federation back on the right track,” she added.
“Words that seriously waver”
The minister had previously started the press conference with a violent charge against the boss of the FFF, noting “a bankruptcy on the function of representation with words that are seriously failing”. “I don’t want these situations where it’s tripping anymore, she said. He got us used to these exits from the road. I think we all have in mind what has been said in recent years, words that minimized the risks, sometimes the significance of the phenomena of racism and homophobia in football, which could have shocked communities. I consider that these successive exits from the road not only have the effect of creating frying on the line, it also harms the image of our country and offends the French.”
Sunday, Noël Le Graët had had discourteous words with regard to Zinédine Zidane on RMC, declarations which aroused an avalanche of indignant reactions. “I don’t care”, he can go where he wants”, said the 81-year-old leader, when asked about the future of Zidane, whom he would not “even have taken on the phone” if he Ci had shown interest in the post of coach of the Blues. Faced with the controversy, Le Graët personally apologized Monday in a press release, considered worrying and serious by the Minister of Sports. Laurent Blanc, former player of the Blues and coach de Lyon, is the last to have reacted. “It’s very easy to apologize, it lasts two seconds, but when you make offers, the words remain,” he said.