Business within the FFF: the Ministry of Sports launches an audit

Europe 1 with AFP 12:17 p.m., September 16, 2022

The Ministry of Sports decided on Friday to initiate an audit and control mission within the French Football Federation (FFF) after the publication by the magazine So Foot of an investigation pointing to numerous dysfunctions within the FFF. .

The magazine's investigation, published on September 8, mentioned in particular, on the strength of anonymous testimonies, the sending of sexual SMS to employees of the FFF by President Noël Le Graët.

The ministry's decision came after an interview on Friday between the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castera and Noël Le Graët, in the presence of the director general of the FFF Florence Hardouin, at the ministry's headquarters.

Defamation complaint against So Foot

"The Minister told them that she was going to initiate a mission from the General Inspectorate for Education, Sport and Research (IGESR) to audit and control the management of the Federation and compliance with the obligations that attached to it," the sports ministry said in a statement.

"Noël Le Graët has undertaken to transmit to this mission, in the most complete transparency, all the reports produced in the recent period on the FFF and in particular those relating to its governance and its management", added the ministry.

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"The Minister recalled that it was imperative that the FFF continue its activities with absolute respect for all employees, regardless of their hierarchical level, and by actively monitoring the prevention and fight against all forms of discrimination and of violence, including sexist and sexual violence,” according to the statement.

Last week, the management but also the personality of Noël Le Graët (80), who arrived in 2011 at the head of the FFF and re-elected in 2021 for a new term, had been heavily criticized in the article in the monthly So Foot, who had mentioned, on the basis of anonymous testimonies, the sending by Le Graët of SMS of a sexual nature to employees of the FFF.

According to a source interviewed by So Foot, several women have resigned from the body in recent years because they felt "sexually harassed, but also morally".

The Federation reacted Thursday, after the meeting of its executive committee, by announcing the filing of a complaint "for defamation against the magazine So Foot because of the seriously defamatory accusations" of the article.