On October 28 and 29, 2010, the first States General of French football will be held at INSEP. This is a major event because a new federal model is expected to emerge from this reflective seminar. That’s what the president of the French Football Federation, Mr. Fernand DUCHAUSSOY, is anticipating from this seminar as he indicated in the September 2010 issue of Foot Mag: “While our organization remains extremely solid, a reform of our federal model is now essential. This reflection is a crucial issue for the future.”
It will be especially placed within the framework of the States General of football that the F.F.F. must lead… Let us ensure the preservation of three fundamentals of our discipline: the French Team, solidarity between amateurs and professionals, and the legitimate authority of the Federation.”
Thus, President DUCHAUSSOY sets the doctrine by clearly assigning a roadmap to the States General for which the FFF is the only driver. In this regard, let us recall that the Ligue du Football Professionnel once claimed to be the leader of this operation.
It seems that a direct arbitration from the Elysรฉe has definitively ended this ambition in favor of the FFF alone, which will thus have the enhanced duty to successfully carry out the mission desired by the President of the Republic.
To this end, all the vital forces of French football will be mobilized, but not only them. Indeed, alongside qualified personalities from within or outside the world of football, the members of the Federal Council, the Board of Directors of the LFP, the Board of Directors of the LFA, the Executive Committee of the UCPE, the Bureaus of the Colleges of League and District Presidents, as well as representatives of the various national senior leagues of the Federation will be invited to participate in the work.
A General Steering Committee of 14 members has been formed by President DUCHAUSSOY, who, in addition to himself, will include Mr. THIRIEZ, MASSEGLIA (President of the CNOSF), Youri DJORKAEF, LAMBERT (General Director of the FFF), BARBET (Vice-president Delegate of the LFA), LOUVEL (President of the UCPF), NOLORGUE (President of the College of League Presidents), HERBERT (President of the College of District Presidents), GOHEL (President of the Union of French Football Championship Clubs), BUNGERT (Vice-president of the Football Foundation), KASTENDEUCH (Co-president of the UNFP), SAULES (President of the UNAF), and Miss De BOISNARD (President of the PSG Foundation).
Three steering groups, each composed of several workshops, will have to reflect on the following themes:
– Modernization of French Football structures.
– Economic competitiveness, funding, and solidarity of French Football.
– Social and civic role of French Football.
Thus, all federal activities will be subject to a review to ultimately result in a genuine new “Federal Pact,” establishing new governance for the future of the Federation, the one with the largest number of licensees (2.1 million licensees).
Specifically on governance, the District Presidents meeting at the congress in LATTES (Hรฉrault) on September 11, 2010, voted by a majority of 90% to dismiss the current Federal Council if it did not voluntarily resign in its entirety.
This process was confirmed on September 24 in PARIS at the FFF headquarters, following a working group meeting, in which I participated, and after having heard President DUCHAUSSOY, who came at our invitation to comment on the morning’s Federal Council decisions. The date set for the possible dismissal of the Federal Council was fixed for December 18, 2010.
Moreover, a majority is emerging among the district presidents to support a list vote for future national elections. The principle here being one man, one team, one program to put an end to all the current “combinazioni” which have led, besides to the inbreeding of leaders all coming from the same mold, to the sclerosis of the federal model of which the events in South Africa were the revelation.
Another issue of the reform will be the greater expected autonomy of the LFA, as well as a real control by the elected officials over the federal administration and the major directions such as the DTN or the DNA. Indeed, these structures too often tend to become “States within the State.”
Moreover, the referees have taken the offensive since their union, the SAFE, in a recent peremptory letter addressed to President DUCHAUSSOY, now demands their “slice of the cake” from the sumptuous contract signed by the FFF with NIKE until 2018, amounting to 42 million euros annually. On what basis?
The future leaders of the Federation will therefore not lack for work, nor controversies, all the more reason to strengthen federal power against all possible excesses. For it is necessary to preserve the true values of football and its ethics: the truth of the field.
Allowing the greatest number of enthusiasts to play football on all fields, in any weather, and in all formats, 11, 7, 5, young, senior, or veteran, boys or girls in fraternity, friendship, and conviviality to forget, for the duration of a match, the harshness of today’s world.
