PARIS (Reuters) – Noël Le Graët has resigned from the presidency of the French Football Federation (FFF), from which he stepped down in January after being implicated following an audit for “behaviour inappropriate” towards women and abusive language, the FFF announced on Tuesday after a meeting of its executive committee in Paris.
In the hot seat for several months, Noël Le Graët, 81, denied having harassed anyone morally or sexually.
The man who had been at the head of the FFF since 2011 also announced in an interview with L’Equipe, published on Tuesday on the website of the sports daily, his intention to challenge the audit report.
The Paris prosecutor’s office announced in mid-January the opening of an investigation against Noël Le Graët for moral and sexual harassment.
This departure comes as the audit on the management of the FFF, launched last September by the Ministry of Sports after an article in the magazine So Foot on text messages with sexual connotations sent to employees of the FFF, concluded that the ” behavioral excesses” by Noël Le Graët were “incompatible with the exercise of (his) functions and the requirement of exemplarity”.
Noël Le Graët, whose mandate at the FFF was due to expire in 2024, told L’Equipe that he would take over as head of the Paris office of FIFA, the organization overseeing world football, at the request of the president of that body. -this.
FIFA did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters to clarify Noël Le Graët’s role.
“Noël Le Graët announced this Tuesday, February 28 to the Executive Committee of the French Football Federation his decision to leave his post,” said the FFF in a press release.
“Philippe Diallo, vice-president, will act as interim president of the FFF until June 10, 2023, the date of the next federal assembly,” she added.
Noël Le Graët has also been criticized for having extended the coach of the French men’s team, Didier Deschamps, without consulting the executive committee, after the World Cup in Qatar, or for having attacked the former playmaker of the Blues, Zinédine Zidane.
In its press release, the FFF nevertheless praised “the remarkable sporting and economic results of Noël Le Graët”, which saw the men’s and women’s selections win 11 titles and play in 6 international tournament finals.
(Report by Julien Prétot, written by Tangi Salaün, edited by Matthieu Protard, Kate Entringer and Jean Terzian)
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