Published on : 16/09/2022 – 11:42
The French government announced on Friday that it was undertaking an audit and control mission within the French Football Federation (FFF) following the publication, by a magazine, of an investigation pointing to numerous dysfunctions there.
The Ministry of Sports decided on Friday, September 16, to initiate an audit and control mission within the French Football Federation (FFF) following the publication, by the magazine So Foot, of an investigation pointing out numerous dysfunctions there.
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 following 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.
“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.
Defamation complaint filed by the FFF
“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 once morest 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 years old), arrived in 2011 at the head of the FFF and re-elected in 2021 for a new termhad been heavily criticized in the article of the monthly So Foot, which had evoked, on the strength 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, following the meeting of its executive committee, by announcing the filing of a complaint “for defamation once morest the magazine So Foot because of the seriously defamatory accusations” of the article.
With AFP
