"This severity raises questions": suspended four months, Olivier Létang wants to "pursue all possible appeals"

Lille president Olivier Létang suspended for four months for criticism of referees after Lille-PSG; plans to appeal the decision.

Olivier Létang has been suspended for six months (four months without reprieve) by the French Football Federation's appeals commission for comments targeting the refereeing body following Lille's match against PSG on 28 August. The Lille president contests the sanction and intends to pursue all available legal remedies.

Létang was initially fined €20,000 by the LFP's disciplinary commission in mid-September. The FFF appealed that decision, arguing it was too lenient. In his statement, Létang argues the severity is unprecedented for a French football executive who neither threatened, assaulted nor insulted referees, and notes the comments were made in private emails—a first for such a sanction. He questions the consistency of the punishment, pointing to more serious cases involving violence or harsh public statements that went unsanctioned.

The Lille president's original complaint centred on the additional time awarded during the match and the choice of referee. In emails sent at 3:08 am to the national refereeing director and federation officials, Létang wrote that his club could not accept being refereed by that person again and reserved the right not to present the team if they were assigned the same referee.