The Pole France feminin de Football (English: French Women's Football Pole), formally the Centre national de formation et d'entraînement de Clairefontaine (English: National Education and Training Center Clairefontaine) is a French training center specializing in women's football, opened in 1998 and administered by the French Football Federation. Formerly located on the Montjoye estate in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines, since 2014 the Pole has been located at the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP) in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. From 2002 through 2007, CNFE Clairefontaine, as it was commonly known, played in the

Division 1 Féminine The Division 1 Féminine, shortened as D1 Féminine or D1F, and currently known as D1 Arkema for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in France. Run by the French Football Federation, the league is contested by twel ...

History

Created in 1998 at the initiative of

Aimé Jacquet Aimé Étienne Jacquet (born 27 November 1941) is a French former professional Manager (association football), football manager and Football player, player. He was manager of the France national football team that won the 1998 FIFA World Cup. B ...

, training center invites around 20 of the best prospects of French women's football every year. These youth players, aged 15 to 18 years old, are international players or referred from their home club to take advantage of federal structures to improve their training. Toward this end, the French Football Federation involved the CNFE in the first division between 2002 and 2007. Since 2008, players from the CNFE academy have been sent to their home clubs for the matches during the weekends. At the start of the 2014 academic year, the Pole moved to INSEP. This had the notable advantage of allowing the women to train eight times a week, instead of five when they were at Clairefontaine. In addition, whereas they previously had to attend classes in a public high school in Rambouillet, 8 kilometers from the Clairefontaine grounds, INSEP has all services on site including studies, training, meals. In December 2020, an investigation by

L'Équipe ''L'Équipe'' (, French for "the team") is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sport, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of association football, rugby, motorsport, and cycling. Its predecessor w ...

published its report of an investigation which revealed that in 2013 a center coach was dismissed from the academy for having had sexual relations with several players.

Seasons

Notable alumni

Leadership

* Gérard Prêcheur (2000-2004, 2010-2014) *

Didier Christophe Didier Christophe (born 8 December 1956) is a French former professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means ...

(2014-2016) * Didier Brasse (2016-2020) * Philippe Bretaud (since 2020)

External links

References