At the end of a lightning electoral campaign, Philippe Diallo, 61, was re-elected on Saturday December 14 as president of the French Football Federation (FFF) for a four-year term. At the helm of the body since the beginning of 2023, after the withdrawal and then resignation of former number one Noël Le Graët, Mr. Diallo was reappointed during the federal assembly, with 55% of the votes, facing Pierre Samsonoff (45% of the votes), the former general director of the Amateur Football League and former number three of the FFF.
Under the law of March 2, 2022 aimed at democratizing sport in France, the FFF modified its statutes and expanded its electoral college. Nearly 12,000 representatives of professional clubs, amateur clubs and regional leagues and departmental districts had to decide between the two candidates during an electronic vote spread over around thirty hours, Tuesday December 10 and Wednesday December 11.
“We regret that there was not a large number of people joining the direct democracy induced by this law”commented Jean Lapeyre, the legal director of the FFF, explaining that the participation rate only reached 40% and recalling that, since 2011, only 220 electors were called upon to choose the boss of the institution.
Obviously relieved at the announcement of the results, Mr. Diallo welcomed the “democratic maturity” of the FFF and announced the major projects of his new mandate. From January 2025, he promises to organize a “major national conference of French football” in order to further “direct aid to amateur football”.
Concern about the “crisis” of professional football
Sitting on a pile of gold with the renewal in April of the sponsorship contract with Nike (100 million euros annually) until 2034, he is committed to increasing financial allocations to amateur clubs (currently 100 million euros annual euros) aiming for the threshold ” ambitious “ of “150 million euros annually”.
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