In a ballot on an unprecedented scale, outgoing president Philippe Diallo was re-elected this Saturday, December 14 as president of the French Football Federation (FFF) with 55.34% of the votes, beating Pierre Samsonoff, close to Noël Le Graët whom he replaced in January 2023.
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For the first time within the largest sports federation in France (2.4 million members), the presidents of amateur clubs were called to participate electronically on Tuesday and Wednesday in the ballot, in addition to the presidents of professional clubs, those of the 22 regional leagues and 91 districts. For a total of 11,500 voters to elect the president of the FFF compared to less than 250 previously.
If participation was only 40%, illustrating the difficulty of this change of scale and practice, Philippe Diallo estimated that he gained “ strong legitimacy », after the proclamation of his victory at the end of the General Assembly of the Federation, this Saturday in a hotel near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. He praised the “ democratic maturity which does honor to our sport », which with the vote of amateur clubs complied with a law of March 2022 aimed at democratizing sport and its bodies. His victory was closer than his status as incumbent and favorite suggested. “ What remains important, as in football, is to win the matches », smiled Philippe Diallo, evoking “ a significant margin “.
“ We did not sense a hectic campaign, where there was opposition, the speeches were equivalent », Confided to AFP Gérard Pique, treasurer of the Ligue des Hauts-de-France, to explain the low participation. “ I was expecting a few more new ideas. I was left hungry “, he added. In fact, in the other elections for members of the executive committee, the quorum was not always reached, requiring a new vote in the coming months. “ For once people had the opportunity to vote themselves, we regret that they did not adhere in large numbers to this direct democracy », lamented Jean Lapeyre, legal director of the FFF. “We will have to take stock of this to be more certain of the upcoming elections. »
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“Renew the economic model » French football
To be re-elected after an express campaign, Philippe Diallo highlighted his record. The Federation will notably benefit from a record contract of 100 million euros per year from 2026 with the equipment manufacturer Nike, and the sporting results of the various French teams are more than correct. With Jean-Michel Aulas, number two on his list, Diallo also enjoyed much greater notoriety than his opponent among the general public. And this even if Samsonoff had on his side the networks of his friend, the former president of the FFF Noël Le Graët.
Diallo has affirmed his ambitions with the amateur world by increasing its budget from 100 to 150 million euros annually by 2028, and with women’s football, where he would like to see the number of licenses double from 250,000 to 500,000. five years here. On Saturday, he projected himself onto the “ major national French football conference » which he will organize in January “to define together our roadmap for aid to amateur football “.
But also talk about the “professional football crisis » French, which suffered last summer from a significant drop in its income linked to Ligue 1 TV broadcasting rights. Philippe Diallo anticipates, “ it is a crisis which can be prolonged, the Federation is the parent company of all French football, it must be the one which takes the initiative » with a view to “renew the economic model “.