Appointed head of the Paris office of Fifa after his forced resignation from the FFF, Noël Le Graët will soon have to pack up. The world football body wants to close its Paris branch.
A little over a year ago, Noël Le Graët reluctantly handed in his apron as president of the French Football Federation. Pushed out, the Breton leader finally chose to resign on February 28, 2023, following in particular the report of an audit mission carried out within the FFF and various accusations aimed at him. The octogenarian, however, did not wait to find work again since his friend Gianni Infantino, boss of the all-powerful Fifa, had offered him the management of the Paris office of the world football body. A year later, bad news could well undermine the situation.
According to information from RMC, Fifa has started thinking about purely and simply leaving its office suite in the prestigious Hôtel de la Marine, located on the equally renowned Place de la Concorde. Several dozen employees currently work in this office occupied since June 2021 by Fifa. The media explained that the matter had already been recorded since the International Football Federation “ would have even already warned the owners of the premises “. The actual departure date would be set for September 2024.
Stop or still?
If the sports site explained that the French government has nevertheless tried since the end of 2023 to pass a law which would favor the establishment in the French territory of international sports federations such as Fifa, with tax exemptions on the income of employees for five years, he added that parliamentarians spoke out against it. Result: the Constitutional Council was seized and rejected the measures in question. The file is currently practically at a standstill, which has had the gift of annoying an increasingly impatient Fifa.
As for Noël Le Graët, who began his mission with the implementation of a technician training offer for African federations, he does not yet know what will become of him. Like the other employees of the Paris office of Fifa, he is therefore waiting to know where his activity will be relocated. According to RMC, nothing has yet been decided, even if a relocation to Zurich (Switzerland) is mentioned. At eighty-two years old, he could take this opportunity to hang up football for good.
