What do we listen to on Sunday evening at the Elysée Palace? Bartoli Time, on RMC. Sunday evening, an adviser to Emmanuel Macron heard the words of the president of the French Football Federation Noël Le Graët live: “If Zidane tried to reach me? Certainly not, I would not even have taken him on the phone.” Damage to national heritage. And, in the process, earthquake, with an incredible tweet from Kylian Mbappé: “Zidane is France, we don’t disrespect the legend like that…” This time, there will be no delay in ignition: here is a state affair followed at the top of the executive from the first moment!
When the ball is no longer round, a President of the Republic has to worry. So is France. We remember that Nicolas Sarkozy, in 2010, had received Thierry Henry as soon as he returned from South Africa, after the Blues had had two fatal ideas: to invent the strike in the middle of the World Cup and to prefer to remain seated in a bus than to training on a lawn, which avoids injuries but not defeats.
Emmanuel Macron, another great football enthusiast, therefore also very quickly got involved in the Le Graët case, also accused of sexual harassment. He immediately asks for details on the procedures at the FFF. And when the name of Michel Platini arises in the conversation as a possible successor, the head of state inquires: where is the former number 10 of the Blues in his legal disputes? The former UEFA president was acquitted by Swiss justice in July of suspicions of fraud, breach of trust and unfair management in the so-called “alleged unfair payment” case, but Fifa appealed.
Suffice to say that at the Elysée, the process which leads to letting go of Le Graët has already begun. At the start, it was a story of Bretons: the former mayor of Guingamp, Noël Le Graët, knew the Minister of Foreign Affairs of 2017, Jean-Yves Le Drian, well, and this is how he approached the head of state. The two men then maintain friendly relations. Since 2018 and on several occasions, Le Graët even boasts of having obtained the cancellation of the closure of the Guingamp maternity hospital after discussions with the President of the Republic.
Bygone era. The file of Noël Le Graët quickly appears overwhelming in the eyes of Emmanuel Macron, because the president of the FFF has committed another blunder, of those that this particularly resentful head of state does not forgive: attacking one of his relatives. In its January 9 edition, The Team indeed reports an element that is important: towards the end of the World Cup, Le Graët got angry with the Minister of Sports in front of an adviser to Emmanuel Macron. The incident immediately came to the ears of the President of the Republic and the Minister, to the point that the former threatened not to go to Qatar for the semi-final between France and Morocco.
We do not touch Amélie Castera-Oudéa. The latter knows Emmanuel Macron well, whom she rubbed shoulders with in the famous Senghor promotion at the ENA, to the point of having almost applied for the Ministry of Sports in 2017. She then confided to The Team “If we want to help him improve the situation of our country, people like us (in civil society) must take our share of the risks and go for it. I am prepared for this job. I have complete confidence in his judgment and I know that he will make the right decision, whether it’s me or not. If he thinks another person is better, I will bow with great serenity.”
She was finally appointed five years later. Immediately faced with a major crisis – the Champions League final at the Stade de France and the excesses that accompanied it -, the former tennis player quickly proved that she had a long arm, at the same time. time as the President’s ear. Because what is happening with Le Graët in football – he is now withdrawn from the presidency of the FFF – recalls what happened with Bernard Laporte in rugby: two federations which are doing as badly as the national teams of their disciplines are doing well. And on arrival, two men removed against their will from responsibilities.
