Could the FFF have prevented Guadeloupe football’s gravest crisis? | OneFootball

According to L'Équipe, the federation faces scrutiny over its handling of turmoil in Guadeloupe after president Jean Dartron was convicted and appealed.

Dartron, 68, led the Ligue guadeloupéenne from 2016 to October. In September the Pointe-à-Pitre court gave him a one-year suspended sentence, a €15,000 fine and five years of ineligibility, all under appeal. The case stems from his management of the LGF, flagged by a public-service union’s complaint on 24 January 2024.

In 2023 he sat on five commissions as nearly €200,000 in grants went to the LGF for development and youth travel, conduct judged illegal taking of interest. The prosecutor’s probe also cited suspected breach of trust over personal travel for family members, with €9,062.25 billed between 2021 and 2024 and only partly repaid.

Despite the inquiry, the FFF opened no disciplinary case. A Mazars audit ordered in March 2024 on travel from 2020 to 2023 found weak bookkeeping and controls. The federation did not join the subsequent hearing as a civil party.

Club presidents twice sought provisional administration, warning of dwindling funds and about 7,000 fewer licences. On 13 October they called it the gravest crisis. The next day Philippe Diallo acknowledged major governance and financial dysfunctions.

On 9 September the employment tribunal ruled against the league, recognising moral harassment and the absence of an active staff committee since 2021.

In May the FFF approved a €150,000 loan to Guadeloupe and Martinique. An administrator was later appointed for six months amid talk of a €2 million debt.

Source: L'Équipe