Jérôme J. Dufourg

Jérôme Joseph Jacques Dufourg (born 2 September 1986 in La Seyne-sur-Mer, Var), commonly known as Jérôme J. Dufourg () is a French sport management executive who served as the executive director of Kenyan association football club FC Talanta from February to November 2013. He previously worked as a manager in Dubai, responsible for creating, implementing and developing the UAE National Beach Soccer League along with the Dubai Sports Council.

He is also a graduate of the 11th edition of the coveted FIFA Master, and worked on a project named "Bidding: How Can You Win Even If You Lose? Identifying the Legacies of Lost Bids to Host a Sports Mega Event" in 2011.

Early life

Dufourg was born in La Seyne-sur-Mer, France on 2 September 1986, to Paul Dufourg and his wife Patricia Lorenzoni. In 2004, he obtained his Baccalauréat in economic and social sciences and studied economics in Toulon for two years in CPGE before heading to Montréal, Canada in August 2006. He obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration at HEC Montréal with a finance advisory profile in 2009. After finishing his studies in Montréal, Dufourg moved to Rome, Italy when he graduated from LUISS School of Government. He wrote a thesis regarding the bilateral relations between Russia and the EU and coordinated by the CEPS's Head of the Energy, Climate and Environment Programme Christian Egenhofer entitled "The Energy Challenge at the Heart of the Relations Between the UE and Russia".

After his Master of Arts in Rome, he was accepted in the 11th edition of the FIFA Master where he graduated on 15 July 2011.

Career

United Arab Emirates

Dufourg later moved to Dubai to assist the Dubai Sports Council in creating, implementing and developing the UAE Beach Soccer League. As a manager and thanks to his ideas and knowledge of sport, he helped the sports governing body of Dubai to reach its goals by leaving a sports legacy to the nation. Dubai secured the Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup from June 2012 until 2017, and the UAE qualified for the World Cup in Tahiti in January 2013 thanks to the talents developed by the national league system since 2012. On 1 February 2013 he resigned and moved to Nairobi, Kenya to join FC Talanta and take on a new challenge.

FC Talanta

On 1 February 2013, Dufourg joined FC Talanta, with his first mission to introduce more professionalism into the club. FC Talanta was supposed to partner with another club in the FKF Division One but that was against Dufourg's will, which was to be independent and negotiate with the Football Kenya Federation (FKF). He saw in the expansion of the Division One from 40 clubs to 48 clubs a chance to secure a spot and dealt directly with FKF. On 24 February 2013, FC Talanta was officially announced as an independent club playing in the second tier of the Kenyan football league system.

During his tenure, Dufourg helped the club sign head coach Michael Nam and his assistant Jackson Gatheru from Kenyan Premier League side Karuturi Sports. He also secured medical cover for the club's players from Resolution Health Insurance. The club also had its matches televised for the first time in 2013 after the FKF secured a deal with South African broadcaster SuperSport, making Kenya only the second country in Africa to have its second division televised after South Africa.

In May 2013, Dufourg officially announced to have partnered the club with German-based sportswear company Jako for two years. This deal was the first one in Africa regarding Jako as an official kits provider and locally, FC Talanta became the only team in Kenya to have a kit supplier. According to Dufourg, the growth of the club was "just a start". A successful media interview with the club showed the deal all across Kenya through diverse broadcasters such as NTV, KBC and Citizen TV and K24.

In June 2013, Dufourg successfully enabled head coach Nam to attend a course for the UEFA B Licence in Dublin, Ireland. Nam was the only African entitled to participate in the course, which included 24 other prospects from Europe. In the month of August, he generously made a donation to league opponents Kibera Celtic to allow them to face his club in their future matches in Mombasa and Malindi. While the team was financially struggling, he personally gave an amount of Ksh. 90,000 (approx. US$1,000 or £600) to the team, a gesture praised by the Kenyan football community.

In November 2013, he was dismissed by the club after falling out with both his employers and the FKF, and fighting corruption inside and outside the club. However, he is remembered since his arrival for steering one of the most organized outfits in Kenya, with the club finishing second in Zone A (Group 1) of the league at the end of the 2013 season, earning them promotion to the newly formed Kenyan National Super League for the 2014 season.

Personal life

Dufourg has lived, studied and worked in several cities of four different continents (Europe, North America, Asia and Africa). He speaks French, English and Italian. He is the great-grandson of Mauritian entomologist and biologist Donald d'Emmerez de Charmoy and the great grand-nephew of former French politician Marcel Vauthier.

In October 2013, the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) indefinitely suspended Dufourg from engaging in all football activities in Kenya, citing "gross misconduct, causing disharmony, insubordination and disrespect for authorities at the club level and federation" and for his "thin veiled attacks through the print and social media" as the reasons for his suspension.

In an press release in October 2013, Dufourg explained his suspension to the world of football by stating the financial irregularities and thefts of the national governing body.

In an interview with Futaa in February 2014, Dufourg attributed his outspokenness to his dismissal from FC Talanta, and gave his stance on players cheating their ages in Kenya.

In the wake of public questioning of current FKF president Sam Nyamweya's administration in 2014, Dufourg claimed that he was jailed and then deported after protesting against misappropriation of funds by the FKF in 2013.

External links

• Jérôme J. Dufourg on LinkedIn