WORLD CUP FURY
French accused of skulduggery as they snatch 2023 vote
France were forced to deny claims of shady deals last night after snatching the right to stage the 2023 World cup following a chaotic ballot victory.
World rugby spent around £500,000 on a formal recommendation for South africa — but their council ultimately rejected the proposal.
The results prompted furious South african accusations of old boy networks at play, with the final decision coming down to a secret vote between Ireland, France and South africa.
‘There were no deals made,’ claude atcher, the French bid leader, told Sportsmail. ‘no extra games in Paris. no nothing.’
South africa were expected to be ratified as hosts after World rugby issued a 139-page recommendation on October 31 to create a ‘transparent’ process. But a fortnight of aggressive campaigning followed and Mark alexander, the South africa rugby president, claimed that the auditing process had been undermined. ‘For the last 15 months it was transparent, but for the last two weeks it was very opaque,’ he said.
‘There was a set of rules and we abided by those rules — but several rules were broken which we are upset about. There was a protocol around the way we engage, a code of conduct, and one of the rules is the way we communicate with each other. South african rugby did not attack any of the other bidders throughout the process. It is disappointing.’
The outcome was particularly embarrassing for World rugby chairman and former england captain Bill Beaumont, as the rFU were among the nations to reject the South african proposal. The rFU offered their first-round vote, worth three points, to Ireland. They backed France in the second round after the French union promised to generate a surplus of £350million — £80m more than their rivals.
‘Humiliation for me?’ said Beaumont. ‘I don’t think so at all. We had three great bids. There’s always got to be a recommendation and that went to South africa. Just because it went to France, that doesn’t mean there’s humiliation whatsoever.
‘Obviously there’s more money in France. Perhaps people might have been swayed by that. Was the length of time too long between vote and recommendation? Should there have been a recommendation? Shouldn’t there have been a recommendation? We’ll look at all these things in a debrief.’
There was also anger in the Irish ranks. Bid ambassador Brian O’Driscoll hit out at Wales and Scotland for a lack of solidarity, after the celtic neighbours pledged their support elsewhere.
Scotland were accused of voting ‘for the money’ of France, while Wales followed the official recommendation for South africa.
Ireland were eliminated in the first round after receiving only eight points, though the combined votes of england, Wales and Scotland would have given them nine points.
‘We thought we would have had nine points at a minimum,’ said O’Driscoll. ‘We got eight but we had a fair idea that two of the home nations weren’t going to vote for us for different reasons.
‘It feels as though we got the support from england which we are very grateful for, but those three votes were only going to go some way towards us getting at least into the second round.
‘I don’t know why they waited two weeks — did that have a bearing on it? Undoubtedly. There are lots of views. They wanted this transparency and it’s come back and bitten them.’