Zidane appointment sparks internal row at French Football Federation

Plans to appoint Zinedine Zidane as France head coach have triggered discontent inside the French Football Federation (FFF), with vice-president Jean-Michel Aulas publicly criticising how the process is being handled.

French newspaper L’Equipe reported that members of the FFF’s executive committee received an invitation on Thursday to attend an extraordinary meeting next Tuesday morning. That meeting is scheduled to take place shortly before an expected announcement on the new France manager, with all indications pointing towards Zidane replacing Didier Deschamps.

Aulas has expressed frustration at both the timing of the meeting and the way information has emerged in the media before being formally communicated to senior officials inside the federation.

In an email sent to fellow executive committee members, Aulas wrote: “An invitation on Thursday for a meeting next Tuesday, and during the holidays? For me, attending in person will be impossible, and I will only be able to take part via video link.”

He continued: “It is not appropriate that the newspapers know everything before we do. I feel annoyed by this mechanism. And if there was an intention to hold a press conference on Tuesday, it would have been better to organise a meeting before the end of the week, out of respect for the democratic process and the spirit of collective work.”

Approval process under scrutiny

According to L’Equipe, the procedure for appointing the France head coach begins with FFF president Philippe Diallo selecting his preferred candidate. That choice is then submitted to the executive committee, which is required to ratify the appointment formally.

The newspaper reports that the extraordinary meeting called for Tuesday is designed to secure that approval before the new coach is presented publicly.

The FFF has already confirmed, in an official statement, that Diallo will hold a press conference on the morning of Tuesday 28 July, immediately after the executive committee’s extraordinary session. During that briefing, he is due to present the new France manager to the media, in what is widely expected to be the formal unveiling of Zidane as coach of “Les Bleus”.

The timing of the invitation to the executive committee, however, and the fact that details of the process appeared in the press before being shared internally, have provoked Aulas’s intervention and highlighted tensions over governance within the federation.

Zidane expected to succeed Deschamps

While the FFF has not yet named Deschamps’s successor, all available signals described in the French press suggest that Zidane is the chosen candidate to take charge of the national team.

The expected appointment would see the former France captain, World Cup winner and multiple Champions League-winning coach assume responsibility for leading the national side, with Tuesday’s events at the federation set to formalise his arrival.

For now, the focus within the FFF is on completing the internal approval process at the extraordinary executive committee meeting, amid concern from at least one senior figure over how the high-profile appointment has been managed and communicated.