The 48-year-old Northerner was dismissed from her position as coach of the France team by the Comex on Thursday.
The sentence has fallen. In the wake of the resignation of Noël Le Graet, following a meeting of the Comex (executive committee), a few days ago, Corinne Deacon was dismissed from her position as coach of the French women’s team, Thursday, March 9. At heart turmoil after the decision of Wendie Renard and several other internationals to no longer play with the selection, the now ex-coach of the Blue will therefore not be on the tricolor bench at the next World Cup, scheduled in five months in Australia and New Zealand (July 20-August 20). But what will remain of his six-year term at the head of the French women’s team?
Relational conflicts with its executives
Taunted throughout her mandate for her management of human relations, Corinne Deacon finally paid the price. For good reason, the announcement of the withdrawal of Wendie Renard and three other French women had an almost immediate effect. The captain of the Bleues announced on her social networks, Friday February 24, to give up on the 2023 World Cup “under such conditions”denouncing “a system far from the requirements required by the highest level”.
Before this episode, other tricolor executives had expressed their difficult relations with the 48-year-old Northerner. In 2020, a first statement on Canal + by Amandine Henry, captain at the time, had the effect of a bomb after the elimination in the quarterfinals of the 2019 World Cup: “Humanly, I saw girls crying in their room, me too sometimes. I wanted to live this World Cup [2019], but in the end it was total chaos. The atmosphere, the management, the general atmosphere that there was… Confidence is the basis. And there, we say to ourselves ‘: at any time I can leave’. So we shut up.”
The Lyon midfielder will ultimately never be called back to Les Bleues again. Like Eugénie Le Sommer, top scorer in the history of the France team (175 caps, 86 goals), who would have disagreed with certain tactical choices of the former coach. Former international goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi had herself made the decision to put a parenthesis on her selection career, denouncing “a negative climate” around Corinne Deacon, in an interview for OLTV on October 28, 2020. She then estimated that he was “impossible” of “win a title with this coach”.
A disappointing sporting record overall
Sarah Bouhaddi was right. Arrived on August 30, 2017 to succeed Olivier Echouafni, Corinne Deacon never managed to present convincing results. Rarely put in difficulty against second-tier nations, the French team Deacon version has been more capricious against world leaders. Yet endowed with one of the best generations in the history of Les Bleues, the coach has never touched the coveted first international title, not playing in any final during her era.
During its first World Cup in 2019, organized in France, the tricolor selection guided by the Northerner had easily reached the final phase of the competition with three victories, then moved on to the next round by winning against Brazil (2- 1). But the dreams of success had flown away from the quarter-finals, defeated by the future American world champions (1-2). Beyond a premature elimination in front of their public, this disillusionment before the last four of the competition had led to the non-qualification of Corinne Deacon’s players at the Tokyo Olympics.
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At Euro 2022, it was Germany who blocked the road to the Habs (1-2), this time in the semi-finals of the competition. This edition, judged successful by Noël Le Graët, had offered a moment of respite to Corinne Deacon. Extended last summer until 2024, the former coach of the Blue did not manage to restart the machine. Recent performances have been even more worrying, like the rally in October (bitter defeats 1-2 in Germany and 0-3 in Sweden) and that of February during the Tournoi de France (narrow 1-0 victory against the Denmark, draw 0-0 against Norway).