PARIS, June 18: Noel Le Graet was on Saturday elected as president of the French Football Federation (FFF) after obtaining 54.39 per cent of votes cast.

Main rival and outgoing president Fernand Duchaussoy scored 45.40 percent leaving 69-year-old Le Graet the victor after a sole round of voting.

Duchaussoy had been expected to win the contest but will now return to a role in the amateur game in northern France.

But he has paid the price for a difficult year enduring the fallout from France’s humiliating World Cup showing — a first-round exit made worse by a very public player mutiny in the wake of the sending home of Nicolas Anelka for an outburst against former coach Raymond Domenech.

Le Graet said his first priority would be to receive soundings from the coaches of all the national teams.

“My most important immediate task is to put Joel Muller (head of the French coaches association) to work to meet with the national coaches, to define a strategic plan and then to introduce a national technical director (DTN) with a clear way forward,” said Le Graet.

Former FFF supremo Jean-Pierre Escalettes said he believed Duchaussoy had lost at least partly as a result of “the difficult year he has had” since the World Cup fiasco in South Africa, which saw players refuse to train after Anelka was sent back home in disgrace.

Escalettes resigned after the team returned from the finals in South Africa and Duchaussoy took over as interim head - but the fallout has continued after the player strike sullied France’s sporting image worldwide.

Further issues including rows over player bonuses and race quotas for the national team amid fears that France was investing in the development of youngsters only to see them opt to play at full international level for their –– usually African — country of origin did not help his cause.—AFP