The Blue coach broke her silence on Wednesday, on the eve of the FFF Executive Committee which will debate her future on Thursday.
While his continuation at the head of the France team must be decided on Thursday March 9 by the Executive Committee of the French Football Federation (FFF), Corinne Deacon speaks for the first time after the withdrawal of several players international organizations, who reproach him for his management. In a statement sent to AFP, she said “fully determined to carry out (his) mission” at the 2023 World Cup (July 20 to August 20) with the France team despite a “operation of destabilization”.
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“In view of the shameful media outburst of recent days, I nevertheless wish to publicly reaffirm […] that I am fully determined to carry out my mission and, above all, to bring honor to France at the next World Cup”explains Corinne Deacon in her press release.
“The display of calumnies, untruths and ambitions of each other”
“I will not allow myself to be affected by this destabilization operation, which does not take into account my sporting record, and which has the sole objective of settling personal scores”, asserts the former coach of the men’s team of Clermont (L2). She claims to have “decided not to answer” first, on behalf of “the interest of the national team” and said to have “endured, not without feeling great suffering, the display of calumnies, untruths and ambitions of each other”.
A few months before the World Cup, the captain of Les Bleues, Wendie Renard, announced her withdrawal from the France team on February 24, believing that she could no longer “endorse the current system far from the requirements required by the highest level”. The Lyonnaise has since been followed by the Parisians Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Kadidiatou Diani, executives of the Blue.
On the eve of the meeting of the Executive Committee of the FFF, Corinne Deacon tries a gamble by breaking her silence and putting pressure on Jean-Michel Aulas, member of the Comex and president of Olympique Lyonnais. The latter, at the head of the club where Wendy Renard plays but also Eugénie Le Sommer and Amandine Henry, dismissed from Les Bleues by Corinne Deacon, would have, according to the coach, assured her “in view of the information already collected by the commission, (…) that he was ready to reconsider his public remarks by now considering the situation with objectivity and impartiality.” Jean-Michel Aulas, a strong man in women’s football with 15 French championship titles and eight Champions Leagues for his women’s team, recently called on the Comex to take into account the opinion of the players: “From the moment people express themselves in a balanced way, with arguments, you have to listen to them.”