Football: French federation president wants coach Deschamps to stay
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
France's Kylian Mbappe and coach Didier Deschamps greet the fans from a balcony at Hotel Crillon after returning from their World Cup final loss to Argentina in Qatar.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
RENNES – The French Football Federation (FFF) president Noel le Graet said in an interview published on Thursday that he wants France coach Didier Deschamps, whose current contract expires at the end of the year, to remain in the post.
Deschamps, 54, led Les Bleus to the World Cup final on Sunday,
Deschamps, who captained the 1998 France team to their first World Cup title and became Les Bleus coach in 2012, will meet le Graet in the north-west town of Guingamp next week to discuss extending his deal until Euro 2024.
“In my opinion, we will settle it in Guingamp,” le Graet told newspaper Ouest-France.
“If he doesn’t want to stay, it will be short. If he wants to stay, then there will be discussions that are a little longer. Didier has done his job well, I think we’ll come to an agreement.”
France’s next game is against the Netherlands in a Euro 2024 qualifier on March 24.
Meanwhile, the FFF also said it intended to file a legal complaint after several members of the France team were subjected to “hateful” racist abuse on social media following the World Cup final.
The abuse aimed at Kingsley Coman and Aurelien Tchouameni, who missed their penalties in the shoot-out, echoed that received by three England players – Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka – following the Euro 2020 final loss to Italy in 2021.
France gained much credit with the majority of French people during the tournament and around 50,000 greeted them in Place de la Concorde on Monday on their return, but there will inevitably be abusers in this social media age.
The FFF issued a strongly worded statement on Tuesday.
“At the end of the World Cup final, several players from the French team were subjected to racist and unacceptably hateful remarks on social media,” the FFF tweeted.
“The FFF condemns them and will lodge a complaint against the authors of those remarks.”
AFP
