Sports
Noel Le Graet, head of the French Football Federation, resigns after an investigation into sexual harassment

Noel Le Graet, the head of the French Football Federation, resigns after an investigation into sexual harassment.
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Noel Le Graet, the head of the French Football Federation (FFF), attends a Paris press conference in 2016. – Copyright Photo by AP/Christophe Ena
By: AP
Noel Le Graet, the president of the French Football Federation, resigned on Tuesday after a government-led audit determined that he was no longer qualified to lead due to his behavior toward women and management style.
Le Graet, 81, is being investigated by the court for alleged sexual harassment and moral harassment. He had already stepped down from his duties while the executive committee of the federation reviewed the audit findings.
According to a statement by the federation, he submitted his resignation during a meeting of the executive committee on Tuesday.
The statement said that Le Graet will be replaced by Philippe Diallo, vice president of the company, on an interim basis. This will last until June 2023.
Amelie Oudea-Castera, the French Minister of Sports, ordered an audit in September last year after Le Graet was criticized heavily.
The final report, based upon more than 100 interviews, and the analysis of different documents, concluded that Le Graet acted inappropriately towards women, and also highlighted other dysfunctions within the federation. It also noted that the federation’s policy against gender-based violence and sexual assault is “neither efficient nor effective.”
The federation praised Le Graet for his “remarkable sports and economic results” since he became the head of the soccer organization in 2011. It reiterated that it was “strongly committed against gender-based violence and sexual assault” and tried to distance itself from this audit.
Le Graet had a good relationship with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, and he will still continue to work at the FIFA office in Paris despite his resignation.
Infantino appointed Le Graet as his personal delegate in January 2022 to FIFA’s Paris satellite office, which includes liaising and member federations from Europe and Africa.
Infantino, who announced the appointment last year, said that the French Football Federation was doing a remarkable work. “I often have the chance to speak with Noel Le Graet in order to better understand how this example can be used to support football development projects around the world.”
Le Graet also wants to keep his EUR235,000 per year seat on the FIFA ruling council, which is chosen by UEFA members.
Le Graet, despite the controversy surrounding France’s soccer body, has not publicly withdrawn from his candidacy for a vote on 5 April at the UEFA Congress, Lisbon, Portugal. Fernando Gomes is his scheduled opponent, a UEFA Vice President from Portugal.
Sports
Milan, Tammy Abraham sheds light on her future

Tammy Abraham punished Inter again in the derby first leg of the Coppa Italia semifinal. After the decisive goal in Riyad with which he gave the Super Cup to the Rossoneri, the English striker found the goal of the momentary lead with the Nerazzurri, who tied the score with Calhanoglu.
“I am really happy for the goal for me and for the team– Abraham said in the press conference. “Then we didn’t win, so we are not happy and we have to fight for the next game, being positive, knowing that we are a good team”.
Then the’ex-Roma spoke about his future: “I do not know my future now. Milan is a great club, very passionate. I want to fight until the end for this club. Staying does not depend only on me”.
“It is a difficult season for everyone. We have other games though, every game is a final. There are always ups and downs. I would have liked to score more but the season is not over. There are 11 games to fight for. We want to play in Europe. We want to try to win the Italian Cup” Abraham concluded.
Sports
Lewis Hamilton, disqualification behind: “Immediately looked ahead”

Lewis Hamilton spoke at a press conference on the eve of the Japanese Grand Prix, scheduled for the weekend. “I heard some people say some nonsense – he began – like I would be losing faith in the team. I can say I believe 100% in this team, obviously there was a huge hype at the beginning of the year, probably a lot of people expected us to win right away, starting from the first race, but that was not what I expected.”
“I’m coming into a new culture, a new team, and it’s going to take time – added the British driver. “I’ve spent the last couple of months just observing how the team works compared to the other two I’ve worked in before. During the past week I have been able to take notes and point out areas where I think we can improve, and this process will continue throughout the year as we learn more and more from each other”.
Then he came back to the disqualification in China: “In general during a race you always avoid areas of the asphalt where there are bumps, in Shanghai at the exit of turn 13 the bottom was not touching the asphalt, there was not even rebound or anything like that, so I had no warning. Regarding disqualifications, we all know that all these single-seaters are set to the limit in every parameter, personally I didn”t feel any frustration when I was made aware of it. It is what it is”.
“We immediately looked ahead, I was in Maranello on Wednesday and learned a lot. I would say the most impressive thing was seeing how the team worked, how they processed the data and how we worked ahead of this weekend, that is the most important thing” Hamilton concluded.
Sports
Jannik Sinner, Riccardo Piatti name 4 names for post-Darren Cahill

Riccardo Piatti, former coach of Jannik Sinner, gave a lengthy interview to Corriere della Sera in which he spoke about his former pupil with whom he parted ways more than three years ago: “When I finished with Jannik I admit I had a few months of daze, then I went toward what I like: teaching tennis. The Piatti Center is not a supermarket: you go through a growth process here. I did that myself. It was a mental click, priorities changed but tennis remains at the top of my thoughts. Now I chase kids” dreams.
“Everyone remembers the match with Daniel, in Melbourne, in January 2022, when he said: ‘be calm, ca**o’ – continued the Italian coach -. He was mad at me for court stuff, it had happened before: it is normal dynamic between coach and player. That is not the problem. I always wanted Jannik to become independent, I knew he would leave one day. But with him I had to be the strict, sometimes rigid coach: that was my role. Ljubicic scolds me that I used to tell him: you decide, Ivan, but then you do as I say. For Jannik, this penalty, at one point, was too much to handle”.
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Then he mentioned a few names for the post-Darren Cahill, who will leave the’Alto Adige at the end of the season: “Carlos Moya, who I had already considered. He has been No. 1, he knows the circuit. Humanly he is a very good person, like Darren. Renzo Furlan, now that he stopped with Paolini, is free. Ljubicic is very good. Or Becker, whom we had contacted; however, working with Boris is more complicated. The names are these”.
Closing on the return of the world number one, expected at the Internazionali d’Italia: “He will be strong right away. I really believe he can make the Grand Slam this year. The suspension has extended his life: he will arrive at the end of the season fresh. You play too much, mentally you never stop. He will come back energized and motivated. He always has been. In the pandemic many took advantage of it by not training, Gasquet in the doping stop gained eight pounds, Jannik did not lose a day. He knows perfectly well where he wants to go”.
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