FRENCH COLUMN
Kolbe transfer saga may lead to soccer-style transfer window
Cheslin Kolbe’s midcontract switch from Toulouse to Toulon raised a few eyebrows in France. The deal itself is not a problem – nevermind the clear disgust of La Rochelle’s Jonathan Danty, who described it as, ‘a shame’ and said it ‘tarnishes the image of the players’.
Danty’s views are at the harsh end of the spectrum – Kolbe and Toulouse were heading inexorably towards a divorce, anyway, and all parties decided a quick break would be less painful than a drawn-out parting of the ways.
And the fact is the rules that allow for it have been exploited for years. Montpellier spent €1m or so to buy out Louis Picamoles’ Northampton contract after just one season in the Premiership, then another €1.4million to bring Johan Goosen out of ‘retirement’ by buying his contract from Racing 92.
Lyon forked out an unspecified sum – rumoured to hit seven figures – to pry Josua Tuisova from Toulon. And in 2018, Stade Francais shelledout €750,000 for the services of Gael Fickou a year before his existing Toulouse deal had expired, and spent another €700,000 convincing La Rochelle to let Yoann Maestri leave before he even arrived.
No, the issue is that these moves are becoming more common: Kolbe’s deal is the second big-name club change in a matter of months, after Fickou made a bargain-basement late-season move from Stade Francais to Racing 92 in March.
That’s a far-from exhaustive list and doesn’t include those players such as Picamoles, Levan Chilachava, George Merrick, and Thomas Jolmes who were going to leave a club at the end of the season anyway, but were allowed to join their new employers early.
Danty’s not alone in his opinion, either. Others have blamed players for ‘not respecting their contracts’, as if that’s the only thing that matters, while others have suggested rugby is taking too many steps along the rocky road towards football-style transfers and players as commodities.
Rene Bouscatel, the relatively recently elected president of the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR), which runs the top two professional divisions in France, is concerned enough to want to be seen to be doing something. He told L’Equipe: “We need to think about this transfer period so that it does not take place during the season. Until now, it has been very limited in the number of players. But there have been two cases, one last season (Fickou), one this season (Kolbe), which must push the LNR board to reflect. We will certainly have discussions to see if there are rules to put in place.”
Whether he’s hinting here at a transfer window, with some sort of deadline day remains to be seen. There would be issues – players’ union Provale would fight for extensions for players who find themselves suddenly unemployed.
Bouscatel, a lawyer by training, profession and inclination, has what may appear to non-lawyers as a technicality-led relationship with transfers. Officially, he is against player transfers of the football kind.
But … there’s a but. He appeared to hedge his bets somewhat, soon after his election as LNR President earlier this year, telling journalists: “Personally, I am against transfers in rugby, as is done in soccer. I consider, perhaps in a backward-looking way, that people are not merchandise. On the other hand, buying out a contract is not a transfer fee in my eyes.”
Regardless of that legal corkscrew, it seems we’re heading along a very particular road and it seems there’s no easy turning back if a commodity or not-commodity decision isn’t made soon.
The deal that took Kolbe from Toulouse to Toulon may not, in a legal sense, be a ‘transfer’ – but we’re so used to the football-style twice-yearly player market that Kolbe’s mid-contract move looks an awful lot like transfer market protoduck. And it makes a noise that to the untrained, non-lawyerly ear sounds a lot like a proto-quack.
Kolbe, if he was watching from Australia where he’s with South Africa’s squad, saw his new Toulon side – stripped of some 20 players for various reasons – draw 24-24 with Montpellier. Anthony Belleau’s eight penalties were eventually cancelled out by an after-the-hooter try from back row Zach Mercer.
Earlier, Biarritz – in their first Top 14 outing for seven seasons – served notice on the rest of the Top 14 with a dominant 27-15 win over an undercooked Bordeaux. But for a two-try burst of pride in the final ten minutes from the visitors, this was Biarritz all the way. Twelve other clubs now know not to underestimate the Basque side.
Perpignan, promoted as ProD2 champions, found their return to the top flight much harder, losing 36-15 at Brive on a pitch that had to be painted green due to a fungal infection.
The pitch, unusually, was not much better at Castres – and matched the poor quality of action. Ben Urdapilleta scored the game’s only try to beat Pau 16-12 in a penalty-strewn arm wrestle. Neither side looked ready for the new campaign.
Centre Olivier Klemenczak’s late try for Racing – rounding off a scintillating move that started deep in their own 22 – was not the final score of the Parisian derby. But it was a length-of-the-pitch turnaround as hosts Stade Francais tried to fight their way back into the game. Kylan Hamdoaui then scored an intercept try for Stade to give the final 36-21 score a gloss of respectability.
This evening, Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle entertain Toulouse in a repeat of last season’s Top 14 and Champions Cup finals, after Lyon and Clermont – who played one another in pre-season ten days ago – meet again, this time for real.
“Buying out a contract is not a transfer fee in my eyes” - Rene Bouscatel