French President wants Platini to replace football president to resign over comment on Zidane
French President Emmanuel Macron 'has intervened' in the growing controversy over Noel Le Graet's dismissive comments about Zinedine Zidane - by sounding out Michel Platini for the role of football federation chief.
Le Graet claimed he 'wouldn't even have taken Zidane's call' if the 1998 World Cup winner enquired about replacing Didier Deschamps as France's manager, comments which sparked a fierce backlash.
The 81-year-old French football federation president later apologised and backtracked but it has emerged the row has now escalated to the highest level of the country's government.
RMC Sport reported that Macron took matters into his own hands by approaching Platini to see if he'd be interested in replacing Le Graet, who appears to be on his way out.
67-year-old Platini 'hasn't completely closed the door' on a return to football administration following a bruising time as UEFA president and then an eight-year ban from the sport alongside the disgraced Sepp Blatter.
A Swiss court cleared Platini of corruption and fraud charges in July last year.
Platini would consider taking the position if offered it, the report said, though those around him aren't sure it would be a sensible move.
Zidane won three consecutive Champions League titles in his first spell as Real Madrid boss
It is the latest development in a storm that began when Le Graet, talking about whether Deschamps would continue after France's World Cup final defeat to Argentina, was dismissive of Zidane.
France star Kylian Mbappe wrote on Twitter that 'Zidane is France, we don't disrespect the legend like that.'
Real released an official statement in defence of Zidane, referring to him as 'one of the greatest legends of world sport' and demanding an 'immediate rectification.'
France's sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera demanded an apology for Le Graet's 'shameful lack of respect.'
Meanwhile , Sonia Souid, 37, said Noël Le Graët, 81, had told her that he was prepared to support her plan to develop women’s football in France, but only if she became “close” to him.
Her claims have added to the turmoil at the top of French football less than a month after Les Bleus reached the World Cup final, losing on penalties to Argentina.
Souid, one of France’s first female football agents, gave media interviews in which she explained how she had approached him with a plan to develop women’s football in 2013, when she was 28 and he 72.
She said he had invited her to his flat, telling her that Brigitte Henriques, then head of women’s football at the federation, would be there too. But Henriques never arrived, and Souid found herself alone with Le Graët, who offered her a glass of champagne, which she declined, she said.
“If we are close enough to each other, I will manage to put your ideas into practice,” said Le Graët, according to Souid’s account of the meeting.
“And it was as though I had received an enormous slap in the face. I saw myself as competent and legitimate — but I realised that the only thing which interested him were . . . my two breasts and my arse.
“He just saw me as a girl whose only purpose was to get into bed with him.”
Souid said that over the next four years, Le Graët regularly called and messaged her, once leaving a message on her phone in 2017 which said: “Sonia, I’m on my third bottle. I am expecting you for the fourth.”
