Once again in turmoil after his comments on Zidane, the president of the FFF is highly criticized. Anything but a novelty.
To say that each of his media releases is worth seeing is an understatement. President of the FFF for 11 years, Noël Le Graët has had many opportunities to speak. His remarks are often divisive and can even sometimes shock. This Sunday, on the RMC set, the president of the French Football Federation lit up Zinédine Zidane and once again caused a lot of talk about him. At 81, his statement is the latest in a long list of controversial remarks.
In 2016 – “The Olympics, I don’t give a damn”
At the time, Paris had yet to secure the 2024 Olympic Games. the two men. Champagne hopes for the support of the president of the FFF for Fifa and the Olympics. But Le Graët disagrees and raises his voice. In remarks revealed by Le Parisien, we learn that Le Graët would have had these words: “The Olympics, I don’t give a damn.“In the rest of the exchange, Le Graët had qualified Champagne as a “little gentleman”, repeating several times “I fuck you”. A few months later, Paris will win the Olympics but Champagne will not reach the presidency of Fifa.
In 2019 – Homophobia in stadiums
In September 2019, a few days after the presence of homophobic banners during Nice-Marseille, the president of the FFF affirmed “that we stopped too many matchesfor homophobic protests in stadiums. “Stopping matches does not interest me. It is a mistake. I would stop a match for racist cries, I would stop a match for a fight, incidents if there is a danger in the stands.Asked about the place of homophobia in football, he simply replied that “considering that football is homophobic is a bit much of a coffee.»
And while Roxana Maracineanu said to herself “horrified“By the homophobic songs heard during PSG-OM, Noël Le Graët had simply taken this reflection as a derision. During an interview he gave to Le Figaro, he allowed himself to slip in a small attack on the Minister of Sports at the time: “She is not used to coming to the stadium, it is true that in the swimming pools we do not hear what is said.(Roxana Maracineanu is a former swimmer)
In 2020 – Racism in Sport “does not exist or hardly exists”
Shortly after tensions and (racist?) insults between Neymar and Alvaro during a Classic between PSG and OM, the subject of racism was back on the table. On a match, there can be gaps. But we are at less than one percent difficulty today. When a ”Black” scores a goal, the whole stadium is standing. The racist phenomenon in sport, and in football in particular, does not exist or hardly exists. » declares the president of the federation.
Asked about the presence of racism in the authorities of French football, Noël Le Graët had cleared himself with a response that was surprising to say the least in So Foot: “Wait, I’m a business manager, I have employees, never… Even here, my secretary, go see her skin color. And the manager I just hired, a Diallo. It’s all pointless bickering.»
In 2021 – “They can pull their hair out”
In March 2021, when tensions between Corinne Deacon, the coach, and certain players erupted in public, the problem seemed to pass over Noël Le Graët: “They have no lost matches. So they can pull their hair out, I don’t care.»
A remark that does not go down well with certain members of the State, such as the former Minister for Equality between Women and Men, Elisabeth Moreno: “Ordinary sexism in action. These remarks convey stereotypes from another time. Equality between women and men remains to be achieved in fact and in spirit.»
In 2022 – ‘just a lick of paint’ to improve conditions for workers in Qatar
In a report by Complements d’Enquête, shortly before the World Cup in Qatar, Le Graët has before his eyes a video demonstrating the unsanitary living conditions (see video below) of the workers of the residence hotel of the ‘French team.
Images not so shocking as that according to the former president of Guingamp: “We’ll talk to the hotel manager. We’re going to show him those pictures. It is not unsolvable! It’s just a lick of paint! We still have time to fix that. This is only a picture you show with two gas stoves… They may need to be changed»
A week later, in a letter, the FFF reacted to these images: “ The president of the Federation ended up finding the living conditions of the employees of his hotel problematic. He ordered an investigation and made sweeping decisions»
In 2023 – “Nothing to Shake” from Zidane Zidane
This Sunday evening on RMC, the president of 3F once again had shocking remarks. This time, against a legend of French football, Zinédine Zidane. “Me, I have nothing to shake. He can go where he wants! He can go where he wants, in a big club, a selection, I hardly believe it as far as he is concerned. If Zidane tried to reach me? Certainly not, I wouldn’t even have taken him on the phone.»
A lack of respect that made social networks jump where many personalities strongly criticized Noël Le Graët. Even Kylian Mbappé displayed, for the second time, his disagreement with his president.