Erwan Le Prévost’s route back to power at the FFF after 2014 fallout | OneFootball

Erwan Le Prévost, now the FFF’s deputy chief executive, is back around the France setup in Boston, regularly alongside president Philippe Diallo. According to L'Équipe, he is not invited to the president’s table with the national-team staff, instead eating with federation employees at base camp, where he recently marked his 50th birthday.

Few players know him, and Lucas Digne may be the only current squad member who remembers his 2014 stint. Then team manager, he was criticised over family logistics in Rio and removed from the delegation after some players sought a confrontation, with Noël Le Graët and HR chief Pierre-Arnaud Custody preventing a dismissal.

Families arrived early morning and waited hours because check-in was set for mid-afternoon and rooms were not ready. On match day their bus stopped far from the stadium, a player’s wife broke a heel, and the anger reached the dressing room two hours before a match, which did not please Didier Deschamps.

Le Graët kept him on out of loyalty, sending Victoriano Melero to audit and redeploying Le Prévost to federation events. The fallout had also been stoked by his attempt, between the Ukraine play-off legs, to sideline senior players, and by a TMC report showing him carrying World Cup tickets in a plastic bag.

His successful leadership of the 2019 Women’s World Cup helped him become deputy chief executive in 2025, shortly after Diallo’s election, ahead of former deputy Pierre Samsonoff. Samsonoff has praised his grasp of both amateur and professional football, while others see a figure keen to please when it suits his interests.

Inside the FFF, some who find him warmer than the current director general had even envisaged him replacing Jean-François Vilotte if the latter joined the 2030 Olympics organisation. He is known for promising to handle matters, and he recently led the approach to FIFA to seek the annulment of Michael Olise’s booking. Around Les Bleus he remains watched warily and is easy to spot for his constant phone tapping. He also applied to be director general before Vilotte was chosen.

Source: L'Équipe