The Noël Le Graët affair takes on a new dimension. According to information from World, the mission of the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (IGESR) responsible for conducting an audit of the French Football Federation (FFF) notified its president, Noël Le Graët, on Friday January 13 , that she was going to issue a report to the justice concerning him under article 40 of the code of criminal procedure. Which imposes, for any constituted authority, any officer or civil servant, in the exercise of their functions », to report crimes or misdemeanors of which he is aware.
The hearing of agent Sonia Souid, Monday, January 9, by the inspectors led them to want to report facts likely to be criminally reprehensible, qualified as“sexist outrage”, to the public prosecutor of Paris. With her face uncovered, Ms. Souid had reported the day before in the press on a series of pressing and tendentious calls, messages and invitations to dinner from the patriarch of French football.
After this hearing, several former employees of the FFF and its general manager, Florence Hardouin, provided additional information to the inspectors; who, before this interrogation, had not been aware of any elements justifying issuing a report to the courts. They had so far heard about sixty people.
The audit focuses first on the accusations of sexual harassment and sexist behavior (inappropriate gestures and remarks, tendentious SMS) emanating from former FFF employees against Mr. Le Graët, 81, in post at the head of the body since 2011.
He has always denied any inappropriate behavior
The latter agreed, on Wednesday, at the end of an extraordinary meeting of the executive committee of the FFF, to withdraw until the end of the inspection mission carried out in September 2022 by the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa- Castera.
Radio France’s investigation unit has also published several testimonies from former employees on the basis of their hearing by the inspectors. These ex-collaborators portrayed the profile of an often alcoholic leader, inclined to send out dinner invitations and capable of asking his ” hand on thigh of an employee during a plane trip. A former leader told the inspectors that she had been “flabbergasted” by one ” indecent Proposal “ that the boss of the FFF had made to him.
The entourage of Mr. Le Graët, contacted by the World, has not commented on this information at this stage. Auditioned twice by the IGESR, the former president of Guingamp has always denied having made the slightest statement or inappropriate behavior towards his collaborators and women.
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