Radio France’s investigation unit was able to consult the audit that Noël Le Graët’s lawyers want to have canceled. Some testimonies mention a repeated caress on the thigh, the request made to an employee to travel in a skirt or even the explicit proposal of a threesome.
French football has not finished the soap opera around the resignation of Noël Le Graët, who definitively left the presidency of the French Football Federation (FFF) on Tuesday February 28. The 81-year-old Breton, overwhelmed by an audit pointing in particular to acts of moral and sexual harassment, launched the counterattack.
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Through his lawyers, Noël Le Graët attacked the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, directly on Wednesday March 1. He accuses him of having led a “politico-media cabal” against him and lying about the content of the audit, which has not been made public, to get him to leave. The resigning president will therefore attack the minister for defamation and request the cancellation of the report by the courts. “I will not be intimidated”reacted the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, on franceinfo Wednesday, March 1.
“Good night without me!”
This audit has was conducted for four and a half months with more than 100 people, including employees and former employees of the FFF, by the mission of the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (IGÉSR). It was launched by the Ministry of Sports following investigations by So Foot magazine and Radio France last September.
The audit contains anonymous testimonies from female employees of the FFF pointing to messages, calls, gestures of a sexual nature from Noël Le Graët. After months of hearings, the investigators not only noted comments and text messages from Noël Le Graët, ambiguous for some and clearly sexual in nature for others. It is on this precise point that the lawyers of the resigning president are attacking Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. There is no mention of SMS of a clearly sexual nature in the investigators’ report. Among the elements retained, there is only one message with the mention “Good night without me!”.
Few SMS but a toxic atmosphere, known to all
So there is nothing written black on white but numerous oral testimonies, protected by anonymity. The investigation cell of Radio France was still able to consult them. Some testimonials mention a repeated caress on the thigh, the request made to an employee to travel in a skirt or even the explicit proposal of a threesome with two collaborators. Ihe investigators also point to a method in the behavior of Noël Le Graët who sent few SMS. They confirm “the existence of actions or behaviors of Mr. Le Graët likely to be defined as having a sexual or sexist connotation”.
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It was behavior and a toxic atmosphere, known to all, but excused by the age, 81, of the resigning president of the FFF. This atmosphere was also visibly maintained by the former general manager, Florence Hardouin, and prevented the release of speech within the authority.