Laporte claims it’s all a plot to oust him
Even French rugby – which is used to metaphorical blood staining symbolic carpets in allegorical boardrooms by the imaginary quart, or its faux-metric equivalent – has rarely, if ever, seen a week like this.
And it couldn’t have come at a worse time for FFR president Bernard Laporte.
He, his right-hand man Serge Simon, Montpellier’s billionaire owner Mohed Altrad, 2023 World Cup organising committee head honcho Claude Atcher, and the FFR’s international relations chief Nicolas Hourquet, were taken into custody on Tuesday morning, shortly after they arrived at the offices of the Brigade de répression de la délinquance économique, a financial investigations unit within the French police.
They were released, without charge, on Thursday. Investigators are still to confirm their next step.
French justice runs slowly. This was the latest stage in a three-year preliminary investigation into a potential conflict-of-interests scandal. At its heart, a 2017 allegation that Laporte used his influence to persuade the FFR’s appeals board to reduce sanctions against Top 14 giants Montpellier.
A €70,000 fine and a onematch stadium ban, imposed following public protests at the club’s ground over the failed merger between Racing 92 and Stade Francais, was reduced to a fine of €20,000 and no ban after Laporte spoke to the head of the appeals board, Jean-Daniel Simonet.
Laporte has consistently denied any wrongdoing and, at the time, insisted his call to Simonet was to offer “political perspective” and avoid further conflict between the FFR and the LNR. But it prompted a number of resignations among the board, crippling the disciplinary process for several weeks. It also emerged that Laporte had a €150,000 consultancy agreement with the Altrad Group. That agreement was quickly scrapped – but it was enough to attract the interest of the Ministry of Sport, which launched an investigation of its own
In early December 2017, then-Sports Minister Laura Flessel passed that file to France’s antifraud police. In January 2018, officers raided FFR HQ at Marcoussis, as well as the homes of Laporte and Altrad.
Then, silence. Investigations continued, but very much behind closed doors. Until this week – when it became clear that the investigation had expanded beyond its original remit.
On the agenda for investigators this week, according to lawyers for Laporte, Altrad and Simon, France’s successful bid to host the 2023 World Cup – and the circumstances surrounding Altrad’s sponsorship of the France shirt.
There was particular interest in Altrad’s loan of a private plane so a France 2023 delegation could travel to Georgia and Mongolia in the weeks leading up to the vote.
What happened this week would be massively embarrassing for French rugby no matter when it happened. But this is not just any time for Laporte, who is up for re-election as president of the FFR on October 3.
Before he got back on the campaign trail hours after his release, even before he got out of custody, he was hitting out at what he sees as a plot to oust him in favour of his opponent, the relatively unheralded Florian Grill – who is supported by an impressive list of French rugby grandees, including Serge Blanco, Fabien Pelous, Guy Noves and Thomas Casteigneide.
Other than to deny any conspiracy, Grill has, on the whole, refused to comment on the events of the past few days – even granting an interview to
L’Equipe so he could pointedly refuse to comment. But an earlier interview in Le Figaro, published hours before Laporte was arrested, raised the hackles on the presidential back, as he saw a concerted and organised attack.
In an open Facebook post to 2,000 rugby clubs in France published when he was still in custody, Laporte wrote: “It is a real coup attempt, part of a nauseating electoral strategy: the motivation of the perpetrators is beyond doubt. A coordinated campaign of destabilisation is sweeping down French rugby.
“They are trying by incredible means to steal this election from you, to steal your vote for which I fought.
“To those who have other designs; to those who think they can abandon amateur clubs to their fate; to those who think that the France XV is not important, they will always find me in their way and they will have to answer for their actions.
“I am more determined than ever to defend this ideal. We must fight and resist.”
He maintained his innocence in a second message, posted after he was released from custody. “The dialogue with the investigators finally convinced me. Despite the advanced investigations, with colossal resources, Press campaigns which incessantly kept bringing up the same theories... the case is empty,” he wrote. “There’s nothing concrete. (Just) guesswork, interpretation, scenarios. Now knowing the axis of the investigation, I am more serene than ever.”
No matter how serene he claims to be, this particular sword of Damocles will hang over Laporte until investigators decide what happens next.
To make the FFR’s week complete, the LNR – as it threatened last week – is taking the French union to court over the six-match Autumn International schedule, after conciliation talks broke down, in part because some members of the FFR delegation were talking to the police.
According to sources close to the talks, the FFR promised Fabien Galthie would select individual players no more than five times; would avoid picking anyone involved in the European Cup finals for the first scheduled match on October 24 against Wales, and release the entire squad for the blank weekend of November 7-8.
The LNR said no. It wants a maximum of five internationals, as it had previously accepted, and a limit of four selections per player.
So, now they’re heading to court. And time is short. France’s first international is 28 days away. Or 35…it depends.
“The case is empty... I am more serene than ever” - Bernard Laporte