Since January 1 of this year, the French Football Federation is officially without a national coach. The relationship with Didier Deschamps has ended. The FFF and the coach have not yet agreed on a new agreement. That seems like a matter of time.
At least, that’s what L’Équipe reported in its front-page story on Wednesday. No doubt Deschamps will succeed himself, but the terms of his contract extension have not yet been determined. Deschamps and the federation chairman Noël Le Graët want to continue with each other, but they have not yet agreed on everything. Le Graët does not want to make a contract proposal that runs longer than 2024. While Deschamps has set his sights on 2026.
In an interview with Le Parisien, Le Graët is quite clear. “I love him, I think he loves me too,” the president of the FFF refers to his relationship with Deschamps. “It should be possible to get out,” Le Graët continued about the contract extension. “But, strictly speaking, that is not yet in cans and jugs.”
The issue
There is still one small matter to resolve: money. The sports newspaper knows that the two gentlemen have not yet talked about this. “It was more about the working climate. Deschamps knows that it was better in Qatar than in the European Championship the year before, but still not as good as when he started as national coach. An example is cited about the return flight after the lost World Cup final: there were not enough seats in business class, so that Adrien Rabiot had to content himself with a simple seat among mere mortals,” they reported.
So it seems that Deschamps will stay on. Le Graët, who has already alluded to this, would prefer to bring that news to a union meeting next Saturday, but that seems very short notice. Under the current choice lord, France took silver at the World Cup last month, in 2018 Les Bleus took home the gold.
