Noël Le Graët will seek legal “cancellation” of the audit report and “sue for defamation” the Minister of Sports

A resignation, but without resignation. Noël Le Graët, the former president of the French Football Federation, will take legal action “cancellation” of the audit report which precipitated his departure, announced his lawyer, Tuesday February 28, on France 5. The investigation carried out by the Ministry of Sports “has violated all the principles of independence, impartiality, contradictory”said Thierry Marembert in the program “C à vous”.

The lawyer also accuses the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, to have “manipulated” the inspectors who drafted the audit and to have “lied about the very content of the report”. According to him, the document, which has not been made public, mentions “a vocabulary that does not include any term of a sexual nature”. However, he continued, the minister mentioned “clearly sexual messages”. “It is false and we are going to sue her for defamation before the Court of Justice of the Republic”he announced.

The lawyer for the ousted boss of the FFF clarified that the defamation complaint and the request for the cancellation of the audit report would be sent to justice “very soon”, “time to write them”. “Decisions are made”, he assured. Earlier in the day, the Minister of Sports had considered that the resignation of Noël Le Graët was “the right decision for the FFF and for himself”.

“It has only been a political file from the start”then denounced Thierry Marembert, at the microphone of franceinfo. “What the report contains are only small bits of sentences, of which we do not know the context, the source, the date, the place”added the lawyer, again charging a minister who wanted “to make the head”of the boss of the FFF, “has violated all the duties of his office”, “exceeded his duties” And “lied in public”.