FFF: "Continue to be optimists, we need to provide happiness" (Noël Le Graët, president)

"Continue to be optimists! There is nothing worse than those who come and tell us sad stories every morning. We need to provide happiness," declared Noël Le Graët, president of the FFF, during his final speech at the body's federal assembly held in Paris (FRA) on 11/12/2021.

"The Federation is not doing too badly, we should be fine, even if we are not yet back to the pre-Covid situation. I am not worried. The Federation has no loans (notably no loan guaranteed by the State, unlike the LFP which took out a PGE of €224.5m in May 2020). Football is buoyant, we will soon have more than 2 million licensees (1,839,419 as of 03/12/2021) with an exceptional jump in the number of young people (7-12 years old), whereas it is falling everywhere (in other federations)," added Le Graët.

"We are presenting a negative operating result (-€3.1m) for the 2020-21 financial year: it's the first time in seven years. The net result is -€200,000 due in particular to the €2.7m from Euro 2020, which appears in this 2020-21 financial year (period from 01/07/2020 to 30/06/2021) because the French team was…