Two months before the World Cup in Qatar, the atmosphere is thickening at the French Football Federation (FFF).
A strongman in French football for more than a decade, Noël Le Graët led the Federation with a firm hand and authority thanks to his political skill before the end of his twilight reign: controversial statements, contested management and suspicious behavior.
The Breton's third full term at the head of the FFF looks very much like a way of the cross.
At 80, the "Menhir" seems weakened by a succession of cases which concern both the governance of the body he has chaired since 2011 and practices inherited from another age.
Le Graët has undeniable sporting successes for him (final of Euro-2016, World Cup-2018), shaped by the solid tandem formed with coach Didier Deschamps, which made it possible to get the Blues out of the black hole after the trauma of Knysna and the famous training strike during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
He also restored the finances of the "3F", thanks in particular to the golden contract signed with the equipment supplier Nike, and developed the practice of women.
But the character also has its gray areas, such as its hazardous projections to minimize, for example, the problem of homophobia and racism in football.
The Ministry of Sports launches an audit
His case worsened with the publication in the magazine So Foot, on September 8, of a long investigation entitled "My fed will crack" which presents him, on the basis of anonymous testimonies, as a leader overwhelmed by events, also having a very questionable behavior with its employees.
According to the monthly, Le Graët sent sexual text messages to FFF employees.
The Federation took a week to react by announcing on Thursday the filing of a complaint "for defamation against the magazine So Foot because of the seriously defamatory accusations" of the article.
Accusations serious enough that prompted the Ministry of Sports to launch an audit on Friday.
Two months before the World Cup in Qatar (November 20-December 18), the pressure is enormous around the FFF and its leader, whose mandate theoretically ends in 2024.
Born into a poor family in the Côtes-d'Armor on December 25, Le Graët forged a national destiny for himself from Guingamp, where he made his fortune in the food industry, propelled the En Avant from the amateur world to the European Cup and led the town hall under the label of the Socialist Party.
Fallen into the pot of football "at the age of seven", the octogenarian has always kept one foot in Brittany and another in Paris, where he took the lead in the Professional League in the 1990s, before conquering the FFF in 2011.
"Political Monster"
It was as boss of the League that this former representative in household appliances and hi-fi imposed himself in the France of football, by cleaning up the management of clubs and colliding head-on with Bernard Tapie at the time of the VA-OM case.
This "political monster", according to the formula of a relative, was able to weave a network beyond the socialist circle of its beginnings, offering a direct line with the Élysée, from François Hollande to Emmanuel Macron.
Loyal to the state, tough with his opponents, he has become a master in the art of murderous formulas, as his predecessor at the FFF, Fernand Duchaussoy (2010-2011), could see.
"He was beaten, this nice gentleman. I have a lot of respect for him but where does he come from, there? A little bit of mothballs, right?"
Le Graët, recovered from lymphoid leukemia announced in 2018, is however never far from leaving the road, as when he believes that racism "does not exist or little" in the world of football.
His statement with sexist hints about the Blues who "can pull their hair out" as long as they win, also made waves.
Arrived on the ruins of Knysna, Le Graët is the builder of the second star won by the team of Didier Deschamps at the Mondial-2018.
Under his magisterium, the FFF was enriched by taking over control of the marketing rights linked to the Blues.
Women's football has also developed, with a surge in the number of licensees, increased visibility for the championship (with Canal+ as broadcaster and Arkema as title sponsor), even if the French team has still not won the lesser international title.
The founder of the Le Graët group (780 employees), specializing in fishing, canned food and frozen foods, can frequently feed the gazettes with startling declarations, but he sees himself as "someone quite reserved" who "does not seek not the news at all costs", as he had slipped to AFP.
In short, a form of anti-portrait.
With AFP
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