Pascal Garibian, dismissed from his post of Technical Director of Refereeing (DTA) on 10 November 2022, under pressure from the clubs, finally has a successor. The Executive Committee of the French Football Federation (FFF) appointed Antony Gautier as the new Director of Refereeing. He will be supported by Stephane Lannoy, technical director in charge of professional refereeing, Stephanie Frappart, technical director in charge of women’s refereeing, and Alain Sars, technical director in charge of amateur refereeing. Former FIFA referee (2010-2017, Antony Gautier, aged 45, has refereed 263 Ligue 1 matches and 58 international games. Gautier is a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Lille, former sports assistant of Martine Aubry, and was elected mayor of Bailleul (North), on 3 July 2020.
During the break linked to the World Cup, four candidates (Gautier, Lannoy, Sars and Ennjimi) were interviewed by a selection committee comprising five members of the federal Executive Committee, including Jean-Michel Aulas and Marc Keller, presidents of the Lyon and Strasbourg clubs. The project presented by Gautier, with particular attention paid to women’s football, had enabled it to win the majority of votes, according to one of the participants.
In a press release, the Union of Elite Football Referees (SAFE) was satisfied with this appointment: “Antony Gautier can count on the SAFE and the referees of the professional sector that it represents to be a source of constructive proposals, as it has always been, and to support the reforms expected by the authorities and referees in the service of football.”