05 PAUL GOZE
LNR PRESIDENT
UP 18
France’s LNR (national rugby league) elects its president in October but there seems little doubt Paul Goze will be given the mandate to continue for a second term. The former Perpignan lock and club president was elected to his first term of office in 2012 on a promise to “prosper and advance” France’s club game.
Well, he’s done that. In 2014 he negotiated a new four-year TV deal with Canal + worth €74m (£63m) a season, and earlier this year he thrashed out a deal with the same company for 2019-23 that will enrich the LNR to the tune of €97m a season.
It’s those sort of figures that are changing the entire rugby landscape in terms of player movement, with the Top 14 able to attract huge global stars.
Goze drives a hard bargain, as he demonstrated when he was at the forefront of the Anglo-French rebellion in Europe, which ultimately led to the Champions Cup replacing the Heineken Cup.
He also faced down Thierry Braillard, France’s Minister of Sport, who opposed Goze’s decision to stage the 2016 Top 14 final in Barcelona. Keep it in France, demanded Braillard. No, replied Goze. He was rewarded with a club record 99,124 fans in the Nou Camp in late June.
Such intransigence has made Goze enemies, and Patrick Wolff, LNR vice-president, resigned earlier this year in protest at the “commercial approach” of the organisation he’d helped found.
However, Goze’s position has never been stronger and the convention agreed with the FFR in July will make him even more powerful in the French game.