The inspection mission commissioned by the Ministry of Sports delivers its verdict following final hearings and a two-week period granted to Le Graët, the general manager Florence Hardouin (layoff) and the executive committee of the FFF to respond to the charges.
The parties involved might claim a one-week postponement to heal their defense, but the Sports Ministry told AFP that the report would be sent as planned on Wednesday.
This day should therefore mark the end of the audit mission. Then will come the time for the conclusions to be drawn for the “Comex”, the government of French football made up of fourteen people, including Le Graët.
The ball is now in the court of the president, set back since January 11 and pushed to resign by some relatives. A departure or a return to business? The 81-year-old leader should make his position known quickly during an extraordinary Comex, perhaps on Friday.
“The situation is untenable, the most honorable solution would be for him to resign”, explains an elected official, on condition of anonymity. At the FFF, other voices describe a “Prez” (his nickname at the Boulevard de Grenelle headquarters) sounded by events, considering himself innocent and reluctant to let go of the bar.
“Deleterious ambient climate”
The boss of French football, in office since 2011, has however been in the storm for several weeks, weakened by his clumsy statements on the icon Zinédine Zidane and by testimonies from women evoking his inappropriate behavior.
Since mid-January, he has also been the subject of an investigation for moral and sexual harassment, opened following a report made by the inspectors. The latter indicated that they would transmit additional elements of information to justice.
The preliminary report of the General Inspectorate for Education, Sport and Research (IGESR), which AFP was able to consult, proved overwhelming: Le Graët no longer has “the necessary legitimacy to administer and represent French football” given “his behavior towards women, his public statements and the failures of governance” at the FFF.
His lawyers, Mes Florence Bourg and Thierry Marembert, denounced a document “which looks like an indictment” once morest the Breton who feels a “deep feeling of injustice” in the face of this audit mission, subjected according to them “to political pressure and media”.
“We also regret the violation of the confidentiality of this report and the deleterious ambient climate which ignores respect for the presumption of innocence,” they pointed out to AFP.
Disciplinary lever
The Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, did not spare her criticism of “NLG”. After the first elements of the report, however, she voluntarily stopped answering questions regarding the FFF and its president. She should speak on the subject on Wednesday at the end of the followingnoon.
This thorny question might be on the menu of the meeting between Emmanuel Macron and the boss of the International Football Federation (Fifa) Gianni Infantino, Wednesday followingnoon in Paris. If the case were to be raised, the President of the Republic “will recall that he is very attentive to the independence of the sports movement, and that he does not intend to interfere”, assures his entourage.
The next Comex of the Federation promises to be lively in any case, with the return of Le Graët himself, a first for a month. His withdrawal was scheduled to last until the Comex following the submission of the report.
The Breton can decide to give up his apron, under pressure from his former collisters, or to cling to his position, which would then place his close guard in embarrassment. To make him leave, the members of the Comex would have no choice but to resign themselves to provoke elections, a radical hypothesis that some no longer exclude.
The Comex may also initiate disciplinary proceedings once morest Le Graët.
This lever, highlighted by the audit mission, can lead to the “cancellation” of a licensee or a manager who is guilty of “behaviour contrary to morals, ethics or undermining the honor, image or consideration of the FFF (…) or, more generally, of French football”, according to federal regulations.