The Chaos & Corruption of French Football

French football is in crisis it's a statement that could have been made at almost any stage over the last 120 years but it is particularly true of the present day on the face of it you might think that French football is doing just fine of the last seven FIFA World Cup finals since 1998 France have competed in four of them no other national team has been in more than two and France is also the only national team during that time to have won more than one World Cup league on is one of Europe's Big Five leagues and has been for some time home to some of the best players on the planet and the finest Talent Factory in all of world football surrounds France's capital city in the Elder France region and shows no signs of slowing down ranks second in the FIFA world rankings France are the reigning UEFA Nations League champions and despite having headed into the 2022 World Cup with significant headwinds including Dreadful form and a pretty major injury crisis France still made it all the way through to the final where they fought back from tunal down to draw with Argentina and could only be beaten on penalties all in all not bad then but behind the scenes lies a murky underworld one of the most sordid football associations on the planet and a series of salacious scandals involving some of France's most high profile players coaches and administrators French football has always been like this to a certain extent France's first World Cup captain Alexander villaplan became a Nazi collaborator during World War II leading his own Arab death squad under the puppet the shiraji less fatal and far more amusingly even earlier than that a dispute between FIFA which was only four years old at the time and the union of French athletic sports societies which used to wreck regulate French football resulted in France sending two football teams to the 1908 Olympics in London one controlled by the usfsa and one controlled by FIFA both France teams were knocked out by Denmark incidentally France B losing nine nil and France a 17-1 in more recent times Marseille were stripped of their 1992-93 league on title and kicked out of the top plates of French football after the club's bribery Scandal was exposed during the same season that Marseille actually became the first and still the only French Club to win either the Champions League or the European Cup and sandwiched in between France's extraordinary World Cup successes labelers 2002 and 2010 World Cup campaigns were marred by controversies resulting in shock group stage exits now French football is facing arguably its greatest crisis yet though or series of crises around he should say ranging from fan violence and Petty personal feuds to allegations of endemic corruption kidnappings and widespread sexual abuse All Hiding with varying degrees of success it must be said behind the veneer of one of the most successful footballing Nations on Earth France is among the most influential footballing Nations on the planet not just on the pitch but of it following the 1908 Olympic debacle and a series of disputes in the early days of French football the French Football Federation was founded in 1919 to replace the union of French athletic sports societies as the governing body of all football in France Jo remay became the ffs's first president and two years later he also became the third president of FIFA the first FIFA president incidentally was also a Frenchman Rene is like the Godfather of French and in some senses all of International Football he played a pivotal role in the 1904 founding of FIFA then aged only 31. he oversaw football at the 1908 Olympics and most notably of all he pioneered the creation of the FIFA World Cup under his presidency in 1930. remains reign as FIFA presidents which is the longest of any FIFA Presidents in history at 33 years was not without controversy Europeans criticized his decision toast the inaugural World Cup in South America South Americans fumed at both the 1934 and 1938 World Cups being held in Europe back to back and perhaps more legitimately than both of those the were and indeed continue to be several questions asked of the decisions host the 1934 World Cup under the fascist rule of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini with remain and FIFA accused of allowing muscle you need to use the World Cup to promote his regime and then giving him undue influence over several aspects of the tournament which was ultimately tantamount to corruption his 23 years as president of the French Football Federation by comparison were viewed as being almost entirely positive under his watch fronts were one of only four countries increased a feature at each of the first three World Cups they won the right house the 1938 World Cup in a landslide where they reached the quarterfinals and in 1930 French football turned professional and soon after that an all-professional Nationwide top flights known as League un was founded remain is long gone now he died in 1956 a whole 42 years before France won that first World Cup by which stage the famous joramay trophy had been stolen melted down by thieves in Brazil and replaced with the far less imaginatively named FIFA World Cup trophy but French influence within World football and the power of the French Football Federation still lives on indeed the 2022 World Cup in Qatar which was the most controversial World Cup since jul Renee handed Mussolini hosting rates in 1934 if not of all time many people contest were not have been possible without the French one of France's greatest ever players Michelle platini was the second most powerful man in world football when Russia and Qatar were announced as 2018 and 2022 worker posts in 2010 having been elected as UEFA president in 2007. platini was renowned for his close relationship with FIFA president Seth blotter but it was widely reported that he was supporting the United States bid tells the 2022 World Cup until that was he was invited for lunch at the Grand setting of The Elysee palace with the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the qataria mayor Sheikh Hamad bin jasim after which points apparently totally coincidentally platini became an advocate of the Qatari bid to host the World Cup the purpose of that lunch has never been properly explained but despite admitting after it he understood fully well that Sarkozy wanted him to back at all's bed platini claims that it had no influence upon Him Sarkozy meanwhile claimed in 2015 that he never attempted to influence platini and quotes wouldn't have had the power to do so despite being the French President Qatar won the right house the 2022 World Cup with 14 votes to the United States is eight and over the next six months France announced a series of lucrative trade links with the gas Rich Gulf microstate most notably the sale of 50 Airbus planes to the state-owned Qatar Airways in 2011. France has since had a closer relationship with Qatar than any other European nation that extends very firmly into the realm of football since almost immediately after platini switched his vote and Qatar won the right to house the 2022 World Cup another Qatari state-owned Enterprise named only be in sports agreed a lucrative deal to acquire the broadcasting rights of Lee gun games in France and in June 2011 the Emir of Qatar bought PSG the biggest football club from the French capital of Paris through a subsidiary of qatar's sovereign wealth fund PSG have won eight out of the last 10 League un titles having won just two in the preceding 41 years since their founding in 1970 becoming the dominant force in French football Qatar and France's relationship is so close both economically militarily and within the world of football the France agreed out Qatar secure their own airspace throughout the 2022 World Cup that brings us rather nicely to PSG who are the behemoths of French football since their Qatari takeover 12 years ago and they're at the center of several scandals all of their own the president of PSG is a man named who you have probably seen standing next to big name signings like Neymar and Killian and Bape when they have been unveiled as PSG players Al khalafi is a Qatari National unsurprisingly and a former athlete himself who reached the dizzying heights of world number 995 in the tennis world rankings at its peak in November 2002 which is about three places higher than I reached I think that one time that I represented my school at tennis because all of the kids who could actually play tennis just happened to be ill alongside being PSG presidents Al khalathi is the chairman of Qatar Sports Investments the subsidiary of the Qatar Investments Authority that owns PSG he is the president of the Qatar tennis Federation and the chairman of the being Media Group which acquired the rights to broadcast league on games in France immediately after the French UEFA president but backed qatar's bid toaster 2022 World Cup he's also a minister without portfolio in the Qatari government appointed by the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Taman a busy man then named as the most powerful man in French football by lekeep in 2016 and again but by France football in 2020 Swiss Courts open an investigation into alkalafi in October 2017 on suspicion of private corruption in the allocation of Television rights for the 2026 and 2030 World Cups for the Middle East and North Africa International media Market but three years later he was cleared in March 2022 the spotlight was put on alkalafi once again this time after he was alleged to have assaulted a linesman broken his flag and threatened to murder a real Madrid employee after PSG lost 3-2 on aggregate 2 Los Blancos in the round of 6 16 of the Champions League once again following an investigation UEFA cleared alkalafi of all charges related to the incident most recently of all indeed just last month alkalathi was reported to have been implicated in a kidnapping and murder investigation this comes in later French Algerian citizen taib benabedramani who claims to have been tortured in Qatari custody in 2020 prompting the Paris prosecutor's office to open up a preliminary investigation three investigating judges have since been assigned to the case which typically indicates a progression from the initial preliminary investigation alkalafi has denied any wrongdoing describing Bernard bedramani and his co-accusers as being petty professional criminals regardless of the outcome of that case and indeed the Myriad of others which seem to follow alkalafia around like about smell one thing that he is certainly guilty of is running a total basket case of a football club I have made two videos over the last couple of years about the total mismanagement of PSG and how alkalathi and the guitar is more broadly have got so many decisions so badly wrong after taking over at PSG uh pretty much the perfect time in 2011 so feel free to watch them for more information on this specific issue but the long and short of it is that despite having a budget five times the size of the next highest spending league on team and the highest wage bill in all of Europe now PSG still somehow managed to miss out on the 2016-17 and 2020-21 league on titles to Monaco and Leal and they are yet to get their hands on the UEFA Champions League despite having a virtual monopoly on the greatest talent pool of young players anywhere in World football PSG of totally neglected that gift from the gods in favor of assembling a sort of Harlem Globetrotter style collection of superstars who are all undeniably fine footballers but are yet to form a truly great football team the one time that PSG did reach the Champions League final in 2020 ironically enough it was a native Parisian and a former PSG trainee that the club had let go in the form of Kingsley Coleman who scored the winning goal for Bayern Munich to defeat them for the second successive campaign PSG were knocked out of this season's Champions League at the round of 16 stage failures which come in the immediate aftermath of perhaps the most extraordinary summer of recruitment in the entire history of European football as PSG signed ashrafakimi Sergio Ramos and John Luigi donoruma amongst others in addition to adding Lionel Messi to a forward line which already included Neymar and Killian and pay several former managers have either hinted at or spoken candidly about the disorder of PSG and the internal politics involved with that job which can start to overshadow the football the current PSG boss meanwhile is currently the subject of a staggering Scandal all of his own three-time league and manager of the Year Christoph goltier who won the league on title with Lille ahead of PSG in 2020-21 has just in this past week been accused of making frequent racist and discriminatory comments towards black and Muslim players during his time at nice golcer spent a single season at nice in 2021-22 in between his title win at Lille and his job offer from PSG so this is hardly ancient history according to RMC sport a leaked email from former niece director of football Julianne Fournier outlines the gold Sierra Mark 240 air the niece had too many black and Muslim players which didn't reflect the majority white demographics of the city in which the club is based refused to let Muslim players observe Ramadan and turn down signings on the basis of a player's religion godzier has denied the allegations claiming that he has been enriched by diversity PSG have refused to launch an investigation into him or whether indeed the claims are accurate despite calls from psg's Ultras for gold he had to be sacked if the leaked emails can be verified though it is widely reported that the club plans to replace him over the summer regardless for all of psg's internal crises and mismanagements they remain financially stable by virtue of their State's ownership the same cannot be said for just about any other professional football club in France ever since the collapse of the lucrative broadcast deal with the Chinese back Spanish multimedia group media Pro while Syria rejected an offer from the media Pro for their broadcasting rights favoring a lower bid due to fares surrounding the company's viability gun seemingly had no such reservations a massive 3.3 billion Euro package was agreed in exchange for 80 of ligon's broadcasting rights over the next four years beginning in June 2020 which made it the second most lucrative broadcast deal in World football behind only the Premier Leagues media Pro partnered with the tf-1 group to create a new channel called telefoot charging 25 Euros a month for their subscription but they only managed to gain 600 000 subscribers which was just 15 of the amount required just to break even so in December 2020 only six months into the deal media Pro and along with them League unsolocative broadcast deal collapsed it is difficult to overstate the financial implications that had only gun and League the clubs but French journalists commented at the time that overnight following the collapse PSG became the only team in the top two divisions of French football that didn't immediately go up for sale the Amazon deal that replaced it was worth just 275 million euros a year leaving Lee gun with a 550 million euro Financial black hole if French football was looking for some direction during these Rocky times they weren't about to find it other French Football Federation Financial Shenanigans alleged corruption and political skullduggery are one thing but the FFF is accused of having engendered a culture even more toxic than that the Federation that wants pioneered World football is now viewed as pretty much the perfect encapsulation of all that is wrong with the French game less than two months ago FFF president Noah legratt was finally forced to resign legrets has been one of the most prominent figures in French football for more than three decades having served as drunk on president from 1971 to 1992 and again from 2002 to 2011 league and president from 1991 to 2000 vice president of the FFF from 2005 to 2011 and presidents of the Federation since 2011. legret's predecessor Jean-Pierre escalates was forced to step down following Francis scandalus and calamitous 2010 World Cup campaign having finished his runners-up at the 2006 World Cup only losing to Italy on penalties after Zinedine Zidane was sent off in his last ever game in the final France had High Hopes heading to South Africa even France's qualification campaign was controversial though requiring atieri Henry humble for them to get beyond the Republic of Ireland in their playoff and before the tournaments had even begun the FFF took the unusual decision to announce their head coach Raymond Dominic would be leaving his position at the end of the tournament a total lack of authority and mass infighting in shoot Nicola said Elka never wants a shy from controversy got into a profanity laid an argument with Dominic whilst France were losing to Mexico having drawn their opening game against Uruguay and when he was sent home the rest of the squad boycotted training France were dumped out of the World Cup finishing bottom of their group with just a solitary point to their name and the entire Squad was suspended for their next game against Norway legrette was elected with 54.39 of the votes but he hardly represented a clean break from the previous administration given his more than two decades in French football Administration himself and six years as vice president to his predecessor a businessman and politician legret's Food business is said to have a turnover in the hundreds of millions of euros and he served as the mayor of jangong from 1995 to 2008 under the banner of the Socialist Party which contrary to its name isn't very socialist but was for decades the largest political party of the French left before splintering and ultimately collapsing of the 2017 French presidential elections legratt is accused of having allowed a culture of sexual harassment and bullying to develop within the FFF in addition to a series of allegations having made against him personally among those to have made accusations against legret is Sonia Seward a female football agents who claims that legret made a number of unwanted sexual advances towards her between 2013 and 2017. legratt it is worth noting is 81 years old meanwhile Sue at is 37 and she was therefore only 28 in 2013 whilst legratt was already in his 70s the allegations against legret could hardly be described as new but he has always managed to brush them aside until the beginning of this year when French magazines so foot published a damning investigation outlining a raft of institutional failings at the FFF along with several inappropriate texts that legrets had allegedly sent to female members of Staff one of the messages read you're quite pulpy I would definitely put you in my bed whilst another directed a woman to come to my place for dinner tonight the FFF denied the allegations and stated that they would be taking legal action against so football defamation Myanmar legrack claimed that not only had he not sent the messages he didn't even know how to send a text far be it from me to suggest that such a reputable character might not be telling the whole truth and just in case his lawyers might be watching I can assure you that that is definitely not what I'm saying but that does have the faint with of overdoing it on the denial front it's a bit like being accused of shoplifting and just claiming that you haven't got any hands at the same time that all of this is going on it is worth noting Bernard Laporte the president of the French rugby Federation and the former head coach of the France National Rugby team was also facing serious allegations and in January 2023 he was forced to step down a month after he was found guilty of corruption fined 75 000 Euros and given a suspended two-year prison sentence Laporte still denies the allegations of corruption and is appealing but it is pretty remarkable that the federation's governing France's two most popular professional sports have been simultaneously plunged into crisis like Laporte lagrats has been forced to resign while still pleading his innocence in the end it wasn't the sofa publication that got him nor was it even his comments that he doesn't give a damn about Zinedine Zidane after handing his close Ally Didier deschamp a new two-year contract extension that was met with with harsh criticism from the French public including Kelly and papay and forced an apology when will administrators and politicians learn that they are unlikely to win popularity contests against football legends no it was actually an audit carried out by the French government into the FFF which highlighted legret's inappropriate behavior towards women and ruled that he failed to hold the necessary legitimacy to retain his job is still took legret 13 days to accept that the gig was up aged 81 but fear not despite that audit which many have criticized for not going far enough the octogenarian has retained his seat on the FIFA Council which comes with a salary of 250 000 Euros a year and he will keep his role in FIFA's offices in Paris hopefully no women work there I guess sexual misconduct or allegations thereof are an all too common theme of French football in April 2010 it was reported that five high-profile French footballers Frank Ribery Sydney govu hats and Ben Arthur and Karen Benzema were all being investigated for their roles as clients in a prostitution ring operated inside of a Paris nightclub with some of the women believed to be underage then zamar and Ribery asked for the cases against them to be dropped claiming that they didn't know the 16 year old girl involved identified as Zahir to her was only 16 years old the age of consent in France is 15 but prostitution was legal at the time only if the worker was over the age of 18. the case went to trial but the judge dropped the charges against both players due to a lack of evidence that they were aware of the fact that they're here was underage five years later Benzema was arrested by police for his alleged role in blackmailing International teammate Matia valbuena over the alleged recording of a sex tape on a mobile phone Benzema was subsequently suspended from the national team by the FFF it took six years for the case to finally go to trial in November 2021 where Benzema was found guilty of trying to Blackmail the Buena with a sex tape and the judge gave benzemar a one-year suspended sentence fined him 75 000 Euros and ordered him to pay valbuena 150 000 Euros in Damages plus 80 000 Euros in legal fees Benzema subsequently returned to the front Squad in May 2021 against the wishes According to some reports of Didier dayshop ahead of a disappointing Euro 2020 campaign even more serious are the allegations of rampant child sex abuse in academy and youth team football in France which has been reported extensively by french sports journalist Roman Molina and published by josomar football according to Molina there are several senior figures in both men's and women's football who have had sexual relations with underage players and are still working with young people in the sport child exploitation both sexual and otherwise has long been Rife in football not just in France and in France's former and current colonies as alleged by Molina but all over the world the power dynamic between an aspiring athlete and those who hold the key to any future success that they might have in the sport whether that be coaches administrators or agents is such that it creates a breeding ground for some of the most appalling crimes imaginable we have seen this in the United Kingdom where child sex abuse Revelations dating back almost five decades only came to light in mid-2016 before being seemingly rather quickly forgotten about as the next round of fixtures came up it would be extremely naive to believe that such abuses had been consigned to the history books in the United Kingdom let alone in France were a toxic culture normalizing and indeed perpetuating sexual misconduct has not just been widely reported but confirmed by a government's audit from the reprehensible to the downright Bazaar can the scandals involving Paul Pogba and Kira hamrawi over the last couple of years in August 2022 it was reported that Pogba had been demanded to have and over millions of Euros to avoid the dissemination of videos allegedly compromising it a month later pogba's own brother Matthias was charged and detained for his role in the alleged extortion plot after Pogba filed a complaint with the children prosecutor's office that he was the target of a 13 million euro blackmail plot hamrawi meanwhile who plays for France's women's team and the PSG was assaulted in the streets in November 2021 after two masked men dragged her from a club issued car and beat her with iron bars the masked men were reported to have asked amarawi whether she likes sleeping with married men whilst the assault was being carried out it later transpired that former Barcelona fullback and France International Eric abedal have been having an affair with hamrawi during her time at Barcelona far stranger still amrawi's club and international teammate Aminata Diallo his who had been driving the club issued car that amrawi was dragged from on the rights of her assault was arrested on suspicion of having arranged the attack Diallo was released after 36 hours but she was rearrested almost a year later on charges of serious bodily harm she denies any wrongdoing the manager of France's Women's National Team during this time Corrine diac who was also the first woman to coach a professional men's team in French football was herself implicated in so many scandals that they could comprise an entire video all of their own before her contract was finally terminated last month after several of the team's star players refused to represent France again until she was gone legratt had continued to back the ACT despite all of the controversies hence the timing of her eventual dismissal after he had also been forced out on top of all that French football has been mired by a rising hooligan as them and fund violence which came to a head with a series of incidents in 2021 including Dimitri payet being struck by a bottle thrown by Leon fans Marseille supporters storming their own club's training ground smashing windows and stealing Andre velaspo's briefcase games having to be postponed or played behind closed doors and some clubs even being hit with points deductions facts are in more minor crises like Kelly and unbappe's refusal to appear in any of the France national team's advertising owing to a rescue with the FFF over his image rights and perhaps there is Little Wonder that France is a great risk of being dislodged as a top five league in uefa's coefficients by the Netherlands and a pretty significant shock that they were able to reach a second successive World Cup final just a few months ago of course that is because France have lots of immensely talented football players arguably more than any other the national team on Earth and that is the juxtaposition of French football simultaneously brilliant ingenious and Relentless but also grubby nefarious and in some cases downright criminal but don't worry it was reported by RMC that following Noah legret's enforced resignation Emmanuel macron has just the candidate in mind to come in and replace him and clean up French football for good that's right it is Michelle platini platini claimed that even if the French Football Federation did come calling he wouldn't be interested stating that he had already quote given enough well at least there we can end on eight points of agreement that is it for today's video and if it had a slightly more chaotic and unstructured feel to it than usual that is because it is a chaotic and unstructured topic made up of so many related and unrelated scandals each one of them with several more tangents and rabbit holes that I had to fight myself from getting lost down otherwise this video would have been even longer than it already is anyway thank you all very much as ever for watching I hope you enjoyed it hit the like button if that was the case let me know your thoughts Down Below in the comments and make sure that you are subscribed and have notifications turned on both for this Channel and for my second Channel both of which should be on your screens now and you can also find me on social media on either Twitter or on Instagram via the username at hitc7s on both should you wish to do so

Channel: HITC Sevens

Views: 202,727

Keywords: HITC Sevens, Football, Soccer, France, French, PSG, Corruption, Corrupt, Chaos, Mbappe, Platini, FIFA, UEFA, Blatter, Qatar, Pogba, Benzema, Ligue 1, Champions League, World Cup, FFF, French Football Federation, Noël Le Graët, Macron

Id: 3_0UuMeSPoQ

Length: 32min 50sec (1970 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 21 2023