Asked about the tensions within the French women's football team, the president of the FFF, Noël Le Graët spoke of players who "pull their hair" on Wednesday.

A formula that says a lot about the progress that remains to be made in terms of gender equality in sport, according to our columnist Virginie Phulpin. 

EDITORIAL

There is still a long way to go when it comes to gender equality in sport.

While evoking the sporting record (moreover positive) of the French women's team, the president of the French Football Federation (FFF), Noël Le Graët, cracked a sexist remark that did not has not escaped our editorialist Virginie Phulpin.

A seemingly innocuous exit, but which says a lot about still firmly anchored pictures. 

>> Find all of Virginie Phulpin's editorials in replay and podcast here

The famous chignon creping

"Often woman varies, what do you want me to tell you. Yes, I speak like Noël Le Graët, with sexist clichés that have a hard skin. The president of the French Football Federation is in the campaign, candidate to his own succession. And he spoke yesterday on a whole bunch of subjects around French football. And when he was asked about the French women's team and the complicated relations between the coach Corinne Deacon and some players, he let himself go to a poorly controlled exit from the road.

'No game lost, that's what I remember.

So they can pull their hair out, I don't care. '

Ah, the famous chignon creping… Obviously, we can't talk about disagreements in the team or about contested management, no.

Women pull their hair out, that's how it is.

In 2021, should we seriously still hear this kind of worn-out cliché in the mouth of a candidate president?

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I'm not talking about the bottom of the sentence.

He could have said: 'There can be tension in the team, as long as they win, that's fine with me.'

Do we agree that it means the same thing?

Wasn't that enough to make yourself understood, Monsieur Le Graët?

You can't both talk about the importance of women's football and throw out that kind of joking nonsense.

It just gives the impression that the varnish is cracking.

Yes, I also like to talk about my nail polish.   

Little phrases that say a lot

And what to answer to those who would object that a short sentence does not call into question an entire commitment to women's football?

Let the devil hide in the details, besides dressing in Prada.

Oops, sorry, I almost spoke rag.

There are little sentences that can seem innocent like that, that escape during a conversation, launched in the tone of the schoolboy joke that does not hurt anyone.

But in fact they say more about the general climate than the short ideas they convey.

It recalls the exit of the ex-president of the organizing committee of the Tokyo Games on the meetings with the women, which take too much time because they discuss a lot.

In fact, we can't take any more of these clichés which systematically demean women in sport.

And we cannot ask for exemplary behavior from supporters, for example, if the leaders themselves indulge in these facilities from another time.

The world is moving, we tell you every day on Europe1, but sometimes it moves too slowly.

So please, in this election campaign at daggers drawn, avoid sexist pans.

There you go, I fall back into the kitchen lexicon. "