After three and a half months of investigation, the audit mission on the French Football Federation (FFF) is entering its final phase with, as of this Monday, the possibility for Noël Le Graët and Florence Hardouin to respond to the accusations made against them. against.

The president of the FFF and its director general, both sidelined on January 11, will be able to read the extracts from the pre-report indicting them and respond to them, within ten days from Monday.

They alone will have access to the parts - dependent - concerning them.

In the same way, Philippe Diallo will be able to make observations after reading the passages relating to the malfunctions at 87 boulevard de Grenelle, the headquarters of the body, in his capacity as interim president.


This restricted access to the provisional report of the General Inspectorate for Education, Sport and Research (IGESR) responds to a regulatory provision.

In fact, it should also limit any leaks in the press between now and the publication of the definitive and contradictory document, expected in mid-February.

The pressure remains maximum for Noël Le Graët, all-powerful boss of the "3F" since 2011, severely shaken for five months by journalistic investigations, testimonies (mainly anonymous) from women accusing him of sexist and inappropriate behavior, and his own sweeping statements about Zinedine Zidane.

Le Graët isolated

The first storm occurred at the beginning of September with a file from the magazine

So Foot

entitled “Sex, power, money… My Fede is going to crack”, in which were pointed, pell-mell, the management deemed authoritarian by Florence Hardouin, the working atmosphere "toxic" and accusations of sexual harassment against the Breton leader.

These press elements led the Ministry of Sports to announce on September 16 the opening of an audit and control mission "on the management of the Federation and the respect of the obligations attached thereto".

This began a month later with the hearing of the main parties concerned.

At 81, Le Graët is personally going through the most delicate period of his long mandate.

His solitary management at the head of the Federation, the overwhelming testimonies and his sometimes uncontrolled media outings, as on Zidane, isolated him as never before.

His situation became almost untenable when Sonia Souid, player agent, denounced in the press the insistent attitude of Le Graët on the telephone or during professional meetings.

Open investigation

This first face-to-face testimony prompted the justice system to open an investigation for sexual and moral harassment.

“NLG” denied the allegations and blasted the leaks in the press, such as the “numerous political interferences and pressures”.

"Mr. Le Graët had neither the opportunity to read the elements concerning him, nor the opportunity to make his observations in defense", denounced his lawyers in a press release.

In recent days, new testimonies have been added to the file, that of a former collaborator who compared in an article in

Presse-Océan

Le Graët to "a hunter", "sick of zigouigui" and that of Aline Riera, member of the comex of the FFF, revealed by

L'Equipe

, who, during the meeting of January 19, evoked "heavy words" and "a repetition of inappropriate words" in the past of "NLG".

The Executive Committee of the FFF, from the list presented by "NLG" during its last re-election in 2021 (until December 2024), pushed the latter to step down on January 11.

And decided to lay off Hardouin, general manager since 2013, with disputed working methods.

According to an internal source, the Breton leader assured that he would resign in the event of a negative report about him.

In this hypothesis, Diallo would retain the bar of the FFF at least until the Federal Assembly in June.

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