Patrick Francheterre

Patrick Francheterre (born 19 November 1948) is a French retired ice hockey player, coach, manager and international administrator. His playing career included time with CPM Croix and Dogues de Bordeaux as a player-coach, and with the France men's national ice hockey team at the Ice Hockey World Championships and the 1968 Winter Olympics. After retiring from playing, he served as the head coach of the national team, and two terms as its general manager. He later became a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation council and was honored with the Paul Loicq Award in 2017 for contributions to international ice hockey.

Early life Francheterre was born on 19 November 1948, in Lille, France. He began playing youth ice hockey in Lille at age 13.

Player-coach career Francheterre began his professional ice hockey career in 1967 at age 18 with CPM Croix. In his second season, at age 19, he was named player-coach and continued in that role with the team until 1979. During his tenure with CPM Croix he also played with the France men's national ice hockey team at eight Ice Hockey World Championships from 1967 to 1977 and represented his nation in ice hockey at the 1968 Winter Olympics hosted in Grenoble, France. Later that summer, he was dismissed by the court administrator without being fully reimbursed, and he later filed an appeal under French labor laws stating that, "the administrator is not entitled to dismiss me, I am a state agent". In 2001, he joined the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) council as part of the IIHF technical committee and oversaw its European ice hockey tournaments. In 2013, he said that Ligue Magnus was planning improvements to reach the level of other European national hockey league. He recommended decreasing the number of teams in the top tier of play and increasing the number of games to allow for a higher level of competition. He felt that hosting an IIHF event such as a World Championship would bring in needed income to fund future development and increase player registrations at the amateur levels. He also stated a desire to have more home-grown talent instead of players traveling to North America to play and attend school.

In 2017, the IIHF made Francheterre a Paul Loicq Award recipient for his outstanding contributions to international ice hockey.