Ford set to step up as Toulon face a takeover
It has often been said that the magic created at Toulon by a former producer of comic books and an injury-prone England World Cup star apparently on the wane would make a fine film. The halcyon days of domestic and European glory are, of course, well behind president Mourad Boudjellal and Jonny Wilkinson.
But now, at the heart of a club where anything can happen and frequently does, they are close to having Hollywood on their doorstep.
In the person of Gerard Barba, Los Angeles head of a big-screen production company, who has emerged as favourite to buy out Boudjellal.
All a bit much, you might think, for ex-Bath boss Mike Ford, who has only just arrived at Boudjellal’s behest.
As if it weren’t enough to work with a head coach, Diego Dominguez, whose job is insecure, two scrum coaches who appear to detest each other and an attack coach relegated to viewing videos.
But that’s Boudjellal’s Toulon until, according to him, he will cede his majority stake and head off for a new career in politics and the media.
His reasons for doing so? He claims: “I am going by the principle that I have become harmful to Toulon because I am the focus of too much hate at the League and Federation.
“I am the victim of real harrassment with the objective of making me give up and, even if I am a fighter, I am not going to have a rotten life for them.
“I have killed no-one. I have set up a business, created 150 jobs and come up with the best rugby balance sheets for six or seven years without putting in a euro as well as one of the finest playing records of recent years.
“I am exhausted by all I have gone through and want to live another kind of life.
“Canal Plus TV have acknowledged that their rights package increased thanks to Toulon. I have brought wealth to all our opponents because it is a sell-out wherever we play. I was expecting to be summoned to receive a medal rather than a fine.”
That’s reference to the €100,000 he was ordered to pay recently for a minute excess to the €10.4 million salary cap – one his own auditors dispute, in any case. He identifies that as the tipping point.
The financial potential of Frenchman Barba taking on the biggerbudget clubs like Toulouse, Clermont and Stade Francais, the leading three this season, is unknown.
Lucien Simon, lawyer and son of a former Toulon president, is favourite to follow his father in taking over the role from Boudjellal.
He admits the paymaster, though, would be his friend Barba who, he claims, is super-rich. Surprisingly little is known about him apart from the fact he sold a home in Florida last year for £8m and has a film premiering in the USA this week entitled
Good Kids, written and directed b y Chris McCoy.
Barba will have to prove he has the big resources to keep Toulon battling it out with the best for major honours at home and abroad.
Boudjellal added: “I will disappear from rugby after this. I have not set foot in a comic book festival for four years. You must not live in the past. My departure will bring a lot of pleasure to a lot of people. The media space I occupy will return to them.”
Although he says he will not squeeze the last penny out of any deal, the 51 per cent holding he shares with his wife should be worth up to £20m.
What he leaves behind, if he does stick to his decision, will be of intense interest to Ford, who has the rest of this season to make his mark.
Ostensibly, he has been hired as attack coach in place of demoted Aussie Steve Meehan, another to have been in charge of Bath.
But he clearly sees himself already as having wider responsibilities under the control, he insists, of Dominguez.
Ford, former defence coach of England and the 2005 British & Irish Lions, says: “I get bored with the defence even if my experience will serve me well. When I was defence coach, I spent my time observing attacks.
“I am no longer simply an attack or defence coach. I am a general coach in support of Diego Dominguez.
“I want to help Diego. He has not long started and has already done some fine things in charge of Toulon. I want to help him do things even better, particularly in attack.”
When Boudjellal was asked whether Dominguez would finish the season with him still in the job, he replied: “Yes, unless….”
“I am no longer simply an attack or defence coach. I am a general coach in support of Diego Dominguez”
- Mike Ford
Admittedly with a laugh, but it is hardly a ringing endorsement. There are rumours of a pension fund wishing to bring back Bernard Laporte to the club if his bid to unseat Federation president Pierre Camou fails.
But the most serious contender is Simon, who says: “We have been discussing this for months. Everyone knows I do not have a personal fortune but I have been able to surround myself with investors very interested in this,”
So enter Frenchman Barba with a possible scenario that, depending on results, could yet see Ford at the helm.