President of the French Football Federation (FFF) from 1985 to 1993, Jean Fournet-Fayard died Sunday at the age of 88, the FFF announced in a press release on Monday February 10.
"Jean Fournet-Fayard was a great leader, an honorary member of UEFA. As president of the FFF, he worked with passion for football, French training, with in particular the inauguration of the Clairefontaine center in 1988. He was a high quality man, with multiple talents, who knew several lives of manager, coach and player », reacted the current president of the FFF, Noël Le Graët, quoted in the press release.
Elected at the end of December 1984 to the presidency of the federation, Jean Fournet-Fayard, pharmacist by profession, had been re-elected in 1988 and then in 1992. Under his mandate, France had obtained the organization of the Mondial-1998, a great popular festival and the first planetary coronation of the Blues.
But he had chosen to resign at the end of 1993, after the fiasco represented by the non-qualification of the French team for the 1994 World Cup, after notably two unexpected defeats against Israel (3-2) and Bulgaria (2 -1), by declaring himself "Tired of being hit on the front lines for an elite football that has exploded in recent years under the pressure of money and various interests".
A "great servant of French football" for Michel Platini
Because his presidency will also have been marked by the drama of Furiani on May 5, 1992, in which eighteen people had died and some 2,300 others had been injured after the collapse of a temporary stand during a Cup match. France in Bastia. Charged with homicide and involuntary injuries, Mr. Fournet-Fayard had been dismissed.
The French football world reacted to the announcement of this disappearance. "This sad news and I wanted to express my sympathy to his family, loved ones but also to those who served French football alongside him", said France team coach Didier Deschamps, who recalled that Jean Fournet-Fayard was president of the FFF when he made his debut in the tricolor jersey.
Michel Platini, who was captain and coach of the France team and chaired UEFA from 2007 to 2015, said "Keep (r) the memory of a man, a great servant of French football, leader in the soul with inexhaustible energy and unfailing commitment". “We worked together with passion to build a destiny for French football. He was my president of the French Football Federation as a player, coach and president of the French Organizing Committee for the 1998 World Cup ", recalled the former number 10 of the French team.
