It was only a matter of time.
According to information from L'Équipe which we are able to confirm, Stéphane Lannoy, in charge of French professional arbitration, has received his letter of dismissal from the French Football Federation (FFF).
He will therefore be ousted as well as Sébastien Moreira, VAR specialist.
The former international referee passed his preliminary interview on March 4 before immediately receiving a letter confirming his dismissal.
The situation has become untenable within French arbitration for several months.
Antony Gautier, the technical director of arbitration (DTA) since January 2023, found himself in conflict with Stéphane Lannoy who heads the professional sector.
The L1 referees also had several things to criticize Lannoy such as his technical line on the use of VAR, the subject of several controversies this season - like this Sunday during the OM-Nantes match (2-0), or the quality of the courses he offered to referees.
An SMS from Létang sets fire to the powder
A point of no return was reached last January after an incident that occurred at halftime of the match between Montpellier and Lille (0-0).
One of the assistant referees had signaled, too quickly, a Lille offside, pushing the central referee of the match, Hakim Ben El Hadj, to stop the game while the northern striker was in a legal position.
The president of Losc, Olivier Létang, immediately sent a message to several refereeing officials including Stéphane Lannoy, who responded to him.
The former Rennes manager then went to the referees' locker room with his phone, claiming to have received a message from the boss of the professional referees about an invalid offside.
Hakim Ben El Hadj then took a photo of the phone on which the SMS appeared.
This episode completely isolated Stéphane Lannoy, who was therefore fired two months later.
To replace him, Antony Gautier should act as interim until the end of this season.