MARIGOT--President of the Football League of St. Martin, Fabrice Baly, accompanied by Council League member Aristide Conner and other presidents of French overseas leagues recently engaged in a series of meetings with the French Football Federation (FFF) since the beginning of last week to discuss the choice of an FFF president.
That culminated in the election of Noël Le Graet as President of the FFF on Saturday, March 18. It was the first time in the history of football that local authorities of the sport have been involved in the election of the president of the FFF.
Participating in this high-level decision was possible thanks to the transformation of the district of St. Martin to an independent football league since the decision of the Federal AG on December 12, 2015. Statutory changes desired by President Baly and his team made it possible, thanks to their work in sports diplomacy with the bodies concerned.
Baly and his team for four years now were able to move forward on several projects with the authorities of the FFF who carried out a special assessment on the progress of the football league in St. Martin.
It was in this logic of sport diplomacy and federal teamwork that Baly made it a point of honour to not only participate in the election of the new president of the FFF, but also to choose, in consultation with other overseas leagues a list that will make concrete progress on overseas projects.
“The leagues of Guadeloupe, St. Martin, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, and St. Pierre et Miquelon decided to unite with the common choice of the list led by Le Graet in order to renew our confidence in the stability of our Federation,” disclosed Baly. “We were also sensitive to the fact that the incoming president made the commitment to make concrete progress on a number of projects for overseas leagues.
“Namely: integration to FIFA, strengthening the set of specific measures for the overseas departments, release of professional overseas players for competitions in the Caribbean region to ensure success of the regional selections and the influence of leagues and football on the territories concerned, integration of young people in national competitions, and an alternative post-championship for regional champions.
“We hope that the new president and his team will quickly implement a schedule of work with the overseas leagues of the Caribbean in particular, in order to make concrete progress on these projects, which are vital for the development of football and the dissemination of the values of our sport in our territories of the French Caribbean, to the doors of the Americas and at international crossroads,” Baly concluded. “This would send a good message of sporting diplomacy.”
