FFF employees reserve a standing ovation for Noël Le Graët

The timing was important. So much so that the Executive Committee, which was meeting at the same time, took a break from its discussions this Thursday at 11.45 a.m. to attend the farewell speech by Noël Le Graët, who resigned from the presidency on February 28, in front of the employees of the French Football Federation (FFF). More than 200 people gathered in the auditorium of the body, including Didier Deschamps and his staff or Sylvain Ripoll, the coach of Espoirs. Standing on the platform from where the national coach usually communicates his lists, Noël Le Graët, according to several participants, gave a speech “very worthy and moving”. His throat sometimes knotted, he was able to contain his tears like last week when he resigned before the Executive Committee.

The ex-president said in essence that he had “spent the best years of his life at the FFF”, that he was sad to leave. He also wished good luck to the body and defended his record which is also that of the employees of 3F. Without forgetting to distill a few subliminal messages, especially on loyalty, or even a little humor. “He thus said that his offices (at the Paris headquarters of Fifa) were not very far and that it was possible that he would invite some Federation employees to come and have a drink with him if Philippe Diallo agreed.says a longtime employee.

More seriously, he assured that he was going to defend himself from now on, in order to clear his honor by trying to have the audit report of the Ministry of Sports canceled in particular before the Administrative Court of Paris. His speech of about fifteen minutes ended with a standing ovation launched by two employees of the FFF. This small ceremony ended with a ****tail-lunch.