If he is uncertain for France - Ivory Coast, this Friday in Marseille, because of an ENT infection, Kylian Mbappé animated the news of the Blues this week.
By boycotting a photo and video session with partners of the France team, Kylian Mbappé denounced a convention that had become obsolete.
This text dates from the aftermath of the Knysna scandal, in 2010, when the rating of the France team, now double world champion, was at its lowest.
When he puts on his cleats, we only talk about Kylian Mbappé.
And even when he remains in slippers, we continue to talk about him.
This Tuesday, the PSG striker unleashed a storm to the top of the FFF without moving from his room in Clairefontaine, where "Kyky" and his colleagues were preparing their friendly matches against the Ivory Coast this Friday in Marseille, then South Africa on Tuesday in Nice.
By not showing up for the "shooting" sessions for the Fédé's partner brands, the 2018 world champion has derailed a plan that until now was going almost without a hitch.
It seems that only certain sponsors are the object of the wrath of the 23-year-old star.
Le Parisien
cites Coca-Cola, KFC and even BetClic, an online sports betting operator.
Mbappé's attitude towards sponsors "is in no way a rebellion" via @20minutesSport https://t.co/GyPyzjryBY
– 20 Minutes Sport (@20minutesSport) March 23, 2022
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In a press release sent to AFP on Wednesday, the Mbappé clan indicated that this approach “was in no way a rebellion”.
Rather a protest against an agreement signed since 2010 by each French international before his first cap, which records the player's commitments to the partners of the FFF, and indicates that he will receive 25,000 euros per match played if he respects them. .
“The conditions of this agreement no longer allow the image of football to be developed in respect of the values that the institution can carry, but also of those specific to each player of the team”, continues the press release, rather nebulous.
Healthy food yes, sports betting blah
What are the "values" advocated by the native of Bondy, in Seine-Saint-Denis?
Already healthy nutrition from an early age, as indicated by its now-defunct partnership with Good Goût, an organic food brand for babies and children, or its commitment to its foundation, Inspired by KM.
Much less sports betting, which several recent surveys have shown has an unfortunate tendency to empty the wallets of the less fortunate young people.
Mbappé, however, still appears in PSG sponsor Unibet ads, perhaps awaiting the renegotiation of a contract that expires in June or, more likely, his departure for Real Madrid.
With his boycott on Tuesday, the probable future Ballon d'Or would also have wanted to warn about the redistribution of the profits from the operations carried out by the FFF that he would like to see directed more towards "foot from below".
"I am in total resonance with Kylian Mbappé, who is not only the best player in the world but also a citizen", welcomes Eric Thomas, president of the French Amateur Football Association (AFFA) and former candidate for the presidency of the Federation.
A challenge also for amateur football
“He has a real reflection on the societal role of football.
The money should go to amateur football which is dying, but it is not.
The income from these operations goes to the FFF, to the authorities and to professional football.
Suffice to say that the Tourangeau does not believe Noël Le Graët, of whom he is a fierce opponent, when the Breton assures in
L'Equipe
that "all that is revenue [from these operations] goes to amateur football [90 million euros this season] and training”.
The boss of the Fed, who tried in vain to convince Mbappé to honor his commitments on Tuesday, does not intend to crack down on his jewel.
“There will be a letter from the lawyers which will be sent to him and to his lawyer [Delphine Verheyden], he assures us.
We will see point by point what is the problem.
We want to improve things and make people happy, sponsors and players.
»
A convention too out of step with the current reality of the Blues
The "s" in "players" is important.
Because Mbappé could create case law and arouse the desire to boycott among his teammates who until now did not dare to snub certain photo or video sessions.
Be that as it may, the current convention, born from the ashes of a 2010 World Cup as disastrous sportingly as in terms of images, has certainly lived.
“After Knysna, we are at the bottom of the hole, so the players accept everything, recalls a connoisseur of federal workings.
Today, they are world champions, they have a track record, they are in a position of strength.
“If the Fed has not followed up on their complaints since then, it is normal for the boomerang to come back to him in the face”, continues another witness, on condition of anonymity.
Because Mbappé's brilliance on Tuesday at Clairefontaine is nothing like a flash in a cloudless sky.
For several years now, the 25,000 euros per match "only" allocated for campaigns in favor of international brands that brew millions (like a lot of Blues with their clubs) have made some players and their entourage cough.
And there, no more question of white knights who fight for who knows what values.
Double world champion (1998, 2018) and double European champion (1984, 2000), the current French team has nothing to do with the one, devoid of titles and sportingly picking up, that has known Henri Emile when he joined the FFF in 1972.
After the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, the former assistant to eight coaches saw Michel Platini, via his impresario Bernard Genestar, and Jean-Claude Darmon, aka "the greatest fundraiser in French football", deal with the "one-third for the players – one third for the Fédé – one third for Darmon and Genestar”.
Times have changed, the sums collected by the Blues have swelled considerably, but certain ideas of the time could still inspire contemporary decision-makers.
“Regulations, in the photos, there were at least eight players, so that there are always the same three or four stars, as we see too much today, continues Henri Emile.
That's why I think Mbappé must have said it was going too far because you can see it in all the photos.
Before the Mexican World Cup [1986], Tigana had grumbled because he considered that he was in all the photos and he asked to see the contracts.
It dragged on and the day before we left for Mexico, we had no more news from him, he refused to leave.
We ended up finding him and calming him down, but it shows that incidents of this nature are not new.
»
The now octogenarian, ex-handyman of the Blues, remembers "having refused a contract with a brand of flour which wanted the players to be filmed in bakers' outfits".
Or even having rejected the offer "from an American restaurant brand that wanted to advertise with the players' bus stopping to eat a sandwich".
A problem “not simple from a legal point of view”
Emile has seen football evolve, the entourages of players expand and specialize.
It is not surprising that lawyers dissect the agreement linking the FFF to its internationals, down to the footnotes written in body 2. "The problem posed is not simple from a legal point of view, Me Jean-Jacques Bertrand, specialist in sports law, who notably accompanied Luzenac in his fight against the Fédé and the LFP.
You have a mixture of personal and collective rights that collide and, in the middle of that, dominant rights and others that are less dominant.
»
"Es complicat", as we say in Ariège, between the conventions linking a French international to his club, to his selection via the FFF or even to his personal sponsors.
“And above all that you can have what is called a conscience clause, adds Me Bertrand.
If something offends your social, political or religious beliefs, your ethics, there is also room to find the possibility of a refusal.
That doesn't mean it's necessarily justified, but you can at least put it forward.
»
A carefully considered boycott
For the lawyer, Mbappé does not engage in this showdown with the Fed without argument.
“Delphine Verheyden is a serious person, I don't see her giving advice or an opinion without being sure of herself.
This also seems to be the opinion of Noël Le Graët, who has already been known to be more corrosive.
“There will be another operation with the sponsors, at the start of the school year, before going to the World Cup, he launched in
L’Equipe
.
I assure you that at that time everything will be settled.
“With a convention dusted off and more favorable to players?
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Mbappé in his works
Since his very first selection in March 2017, Kylian Mbappé has given his bonuses to charities.
In 2018, he paid his world champion bonus, or 350,000 euros, to Premiers de Cordée, which currently helps 10,000 sick children.
The young player had become one of the sponsors of the association the previous year, when he was just of age, through the intermediary of the former TF1 journalist Christian Jeanpierre, close to his parents.
“Kylian was looking for an association that suited him and playing football with children, that's what he wanted to do, underlines the structure based at the Stade de France.
His arrival allowed us to take on a national dimension, to have cash, to launch new projects.
With her 2018 donation, we funded a full-time educator for five years.
But the most important thing for us is that he comes for our operations at the hospital.
He comes, he plays football for 1h30 then he signs autographs.
»
If he contributes to the finances and projects of Premiers de Cordée as well as those of his foundation Inspired by KM, Mbappé also sometimes helps other associations.
During the first confinement, in March 2020, the Abbé-Pierre Foundation had indicated that it had received "a very large donation", the amount of which had not been communicated, to help the people most weakened by the health crisis.
FFF
Sponsor
Noel le Graët
Kylian Mbappe
France football team
Soccer
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