Without directly questioning their coach, Les Bleues executives like Wendie Renard and Marie-Antoinette Katoto criticize “the management” and “the current system”, also splashing the FFF.
Who will make up the French women’s football team at the World Cup in July? The question became unexpectedly complicated after the announcement of the withdrawal of the captain of the Blue, Wendie Renard, quickly followed by Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Kadidiatou Diani, Friday, February 24.
Personal choices or attempted coup? Their criticisms put, in any case, Corinne Deacon in a delicate position: if she is not openly quoted, it is difficult to doubt that the coach is the target of the resigning players. They also put pressure on the French Football Federation, which is already going through a governance crisis. Franceinfo explains what we know about this new case.
Several players are taking a break until further notice
Three executives of the France team announced on Friday that they would no longer respond to summonses. Wendie Renard first revealed, on Instagram, her decision “to take a step back with the French team” and not to participate in the next World Cup, in July and August, “under such conditions”. Marie Antoinette Katoto says, on Twitterput his international career “in brackets (…) until the necessary changes are applied”. On the same social networkKadidiatou Diani talks about “to suspend [ses] international obligations” but assures that she will recover “in the service of the tricolor jersey” whether “the deep changes needed are finally coming”. The players are therefore not retiring permanently (they are 32, 24 and 27 respectively) and leave the door open to a return.
They received support on Saturday from two other internationals who, having not been called up recently, do not announce a retirement as such. “If I ever wear the France team jersey again, I hope it will be in better conditions and with adequate values at the top level”writes defender Perle Morroni on Instagram, who has not been selected since April 2022. Usual partner of Wendie Renard in central defense, but already forfeited for the World Cup due to injury, Griedge Mbock declares himself “solidarity”, on Instagram. In the comments, other current players of the France team expressed their support for these messages, including Selma Bacha and sisters Delphine and Estelle Cascarino.
They indirectly target Corinne Deacon and the FFF
The players do not mention any names, but their anger can only splash the coach and the federation. They denounce the “current system” and the “management of the French team”of which Perle Morroni is said to have “suffered personally”while Wendie Renard says she wants “preserve [sa] Mental Health”.
These remarks recall the criticisms that have been aimed at Corinne Deacon since her appointment in 2017. When she took office, she had thus removed the role of captain from Wendie Renard, criticizing her level, before changing her mind in 2021. In 2020, goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi had renounced the France team by criticizing the climate “very negative” established according to her by the coach, who had dismissed other important players such as Gaëtane Thiney, Eugénie Le Sommer and Amandine Henry. The latter has several times confided in her complicated relationship with Corinne Deacon: “JI saw girls crying in their room”, she told Canal+, in 2020, about the failed Mondial des Bleues a year earlier. A competition to which Marie-Antoinette Katoto alludes when she mentions “the events of 2019”.
It is also a question of “recent results”for Kadidiatou Diani, while several of her teammates doubt the team’s ability to reach “the highest level” with this framework. Under the direction of Corinne Deacon, the Bleues obtained for best result a semi-final with the taste of disappointment during Euro 2022 disputed in France. If they have just won a friendly competition in early February, the Tournoi de France, they remained until then on worrying defeats against Germany and Sweden in October. “Being champion of friendly matches is not the objective”lashed Wendie Renard on Tuesday, quoted by The Team.
Griedge Mbock’s text also suggests that the grievances go beyond the case of Corinne Deacon. She laments there “the gap between the current organization, the expectations we have and the means we are given to fight at the highest level”. Marie-Antoinette Katoto, she quotes her “wound of 2022” – a rupture of the cruciate ligaments of a knee which occurred during the Euro, and from which she has not yet returned. Critics that echo the movements of other international players, in Norway, Spain or Canada, to demand greater financial means and better sports and medical supervision.
This position also comes a few days after the return to selection of PSG player Kheira Hamraoui, for the first time in four years. In 2021, she had been the target of a violent attack by masked men, and had expressed suspicions towards her teammate Aminata Diallo, now indicted. She had received public support from other PSG players, including Kadidiatou Diani and Marie-Antoinette Katoto, when she initially seemed to be out of the question. After the unexpected selection of Kheira Hamraoui by Corinne Deacon, Wendie Renard assured in a press conference that there was “no tension” about her. But Kadidiatou Diani hinted, on February 14 to AFP, that the subject remained hot: “To avoid being vulgar, I will refrain from commenting.”
They have the support of the world of women’s football
PSG goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi hailed the “courage” of her teammates on Instagram, while Eugénie Le Sommer declared on Twitter her “respect” for Wendie Renard, her teammate in Lyon.
“How long do we have to go this far to be respected?”reacted on Twitter Norwegian Ada Hergerberg, Ballon d’Or and also an OL player. Passing through Lyon, American stars Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe also declared their support for the captain of Les Bleues on Instagram: “With you captain. FFF, what are you doing?”writes in particular the second.
The union of professional footballers, theUNFP, also welcomed “the exceedingly courageous cry of alarm” French internationals, seeing it as a call to accelerate “the professionalization of women’s football in France”. Its vice-president, Fabien Safanjon, however calls on franceinfo not to “stigmatize” Corinne Deacon: “It will be up to the FFF to take its responsibilities, it is up to them to do the analysis to understand why these players are positioning themselves like that, the main thing is to listen to them”. Fifpro, the international players’ union, also expressed its “solidarity” on Twitter.
Their departure deprives France of executives before important deadlines
The France team does not lose any players. Wendie Renard, captain of Les Bleues, is one of the ten most selected French women in history. Although she will be out for the next few months, Griedge Mbock is usually her partner in central defence. As for Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Kadidiatou Diani, they are, with Renard, the best French scorers still selected, and two indisputable holders in attack.
Their departure therefore upsets the face of the France team five months before the World Cup, a major challenge for Les Bleues. France enters the competition on July 23 in Sydney against Jamaica. There is only one rally left to prepare for the competition, at the beginning of April, with friendly matches on April 7 against Colombia and April 11 against Canada. A year later, Les Bleues must also participate in the Olympic Games at home in Paris.
The future of Noël Le Graët, boss of the FFF, could be decisive
The ball is in the federation’s court. Friday night, she said she had “read the statements of Wendie Renard, Kadidiatou Diani and Marie-Antoinette Katoto”. “The FFF would like to remind you that no individuality is above the French team institution”, the statement concluded. The message specified, however, that the withdrawal of the three players would be discussed Tuesday at a meeting of the executive committee of the institution.
So far, the president of the FFF, Noël Le Graët, has always expressed unfailing support for Corinne Deacon. Asked about the criticism of the management of the latter in 2021, he replied with a statement noted at the time for his sexism with regard to the players: “No game lost. This is what I remember. So they can pull their hair out, I don’t care.” In August, after the elimination in the semi-finals of the Euro, he extended Corinne Deacon’s contract until the summer of 2024, reiterating his confidence in her for the 2023 World Cup and the Paris Olympics.
But the future of Noël Le Graët himself is up in the air. An audit commissioned by the Ministry of Sports concluded that “illegitimacy” to lead French football, in particular because of his behavior towards women – he is the subject of an investigation for sexual and moral harassment. Before this crisis within the French women’s team appeared on the menu, the executive committee convened on Tuesday had the sole purpose of deciding its future, which remains unclear: called to resign by several members of this assembly, it did not has not yet announced its decision. If he left the head of the FFF, another management team should decide the future of Corinne Deacon and Les Bleues.