A first.
A president of an amateur club has decided to step up to protest against Noël Le Graët's remarks for several years and calls for his resignation.
Exasperated by the last outing of the president of the FFF, Benoît Letapissier, president of ASJ Soyaux, the club where the coach of the Bleues Corinne Deacon has spent her entire career as a player, speaks in an open letter this Wednesday.
It is a personal approach that does not commit his club, current 11th in D1 Arkema.
But she echoes the testimony of Sonia Souid, referent agent in women's football.
The president of the Charente club had this idea in mind for a while but the words of Noël Le Graët towards Zinedine Zidane on Sunday at RMC, decided him to take action.
He hopes that this open letter, sent to several regional and national media, will initiate a movement and that his fellow presidents will do the same.
The open letter from the president of the Soyaux club.
Letapissier detailed the various points that arouse his anger.
“For several years, the President of the FFFF has been chaining slippages.
He regularly makes remarks from another time and totally unacceptable which target women's football, gender equality, homophobia and racism, among other subjects.
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“Democracy is absent at the FFF”
According to the president of Soyaux since 2020, comments "worthy of commercial coffee put French footballers to shame".
In the Zidane case, Letapissier believes that "NLG" associates "provocation and vulgarity with lack of respect".
The way in which the extension of Didier Deschamps was recorded was also criticized by the manager.
“Hearing the president say that he chooses a coach because he gets on well with him instead of just talking about his skills or his record is just as shocking!
(…) But that doesn't surprise anyone as democracy is totally absent from the FFF and as the courtiers are as zealous as they are numerous!
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Faced with the "feeling of impunity that animates Mr Le Graët", the president of Soyaux calls for the resignation of the current number 1 of the FFF, even if it means launching a national petition.
“I am ashamed to have such a character at the head of my federation!
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Reached by telephone, Benoît Letapissier (50) will be very attentive to the Comex this Wednesday morning.
“What I say very loudly, people mean it quietly.
Today, there is THE Le Graët system at the FFF.
I've been seeing him for a while now.
It needs to change.
Enough is enough.
We have to move on.
That we give the true value of our sport.
France is considered by the whole world as one of the greatest footballing nations and to hear someone speak like that is shameful.
Amateur football is also crushed by football business and Noël Le Graët is the main culprit.
The president of Soyaux warns that he is ready to go further.
“If he does not resign, I will launch a national petition and once the necessary signatures, I will then submit it to the National Assembly.
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