Boudjellal: Bastaraud has become a big head!
“I am summoned for insulting a religion ... I will not be attending unless they send me elements proving the existence of God” - Mourad Boujellal
Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal loves to have fun at the expense of France captain Mathieu Bastareaud. You may recall that Bastareaud one caused a diplomatic incident in New Zealand by claiming to have been attacked in the street before blaming a fall against a bedside table for his facial injuries.
Not only does Boudjellal delight in highlighting that evident embarrassment, but he teases him about his driving ability as well as claiming he has become conceited.
Boudjellal, who appears on a national TV talk show entitled Big
Mouths, says in a weekly video special from his club: “Stop speaking to him about that bedside table. He is fed up with that.
“It is true, though, that, since that story came out, I can no longer see a bedside table as I did before.”
Bastareaud skippered France on a recent summer tour of New Zealand and Boudjellal said: “Mathieu has become a problem since he was made France captain. He has become a big head, he is unmanageable, you just can’t speak to him. He comes in and says hello to no-one.
“He comes to training and wants people to prepare his boots, his bag and do his washing.
“And as for New Zealand, imagine Mathieu at the wheel of a car in a country that drives on the left. I warn all drivers to leave their cars in the garage the day he takes his test.
“Stop all these statements, Mathieu, about how brilliant you are, how you no longer want to be Toulon captain. There is only one star here and that is me. You will be captain if I want you to be and that is clear.”
Underlying this knockabout routine, you suspect, is genuine affection for a man who, like himself, has dragged himself to merited prominence from unpromising beginnings.
Things are a lot more serious now for Boudjellal, who awaits this week a decision on his fate by a disciplinary commission of European Professional Club Rugby. Bastareaud is almost inevitably at the heart of the case.
A four-letter French word addressed to an opponent during Toulon’s Champions Cup tie against Italian club Treviso in January still has echoes that far surpass an insult hurled in the heat of the action.
No-one seriously believes that Bastareaud was accusing his rival of being homosexual, but that is the literal meaning of a word lightly, if wrongly, tossed around in common parlance, even among friends.
TV commentator Andy Goode, who sounded outraged on screen at the time, had to confess later he had issued tweets of a similar nature.
However, times change and the European board felt it was their duty to open an inquiry into the blurted expletive.
That is when Boudjellal, who has already attracted record fines and suspensions from Top 14 organisers whom he has regularly criticised, got himself in more hot water.
He said that he feared the “Mormon” side of the European body, adding: “These are people who sell morality when they do not have any. Same as ministers who have themselves whipped in private but pass for clean guys in public.”
And that was even before Bastareaud was handed a three-week suspension for a misdemeanour picked up by a microphone.
Generally speaking, sporting authorities come down hard on people saying things of which they disapprove while annointing themselves guardians of their code. But you feel Boudjellal has overstepped the mark by some margin in this case that has provoked open warfare.
The European body even launched an inquiry into a texted e-mail allegedly from Boudjellal’s phone making a crude remark to citing commissioner Liam Mc Tiernan.
They finally withdrew that suggestion, thereby leading Boudjellal to launch a legal action against them. He has initiated another for harrassment after receiving a request from the European body to reveal how much money he has.
Boudjellal denounces that move as an “abuse of power” and, though the board claims it is a classic procedure, it does seem unnecessarily invasive.
Foreshadowing, perhaps, a massive fine if they find him guilty of charges of “inappropriate conduct” and “religious discrimination”.
Boudjellal had been summoned to a hearing to answer these accusations four days ago. Neither he nor his lawyer attended and the reasons he gave for not turning up are not designed to lower the tension.
He wrote to them: “I have compared the EPCR to Mormons which is not wrong in itself because Mormons is not an insult. They are simply people who live with their own laws without referring necessarily to the general ones.
“I am summoned for insulting a religion. They have no legitimacy to do that. We are the country of human rights and I have written to the President of France and the Minister of Sport because we cannot accept this.
“I will not be attending unless they send me elements proving the existence of God or those proving they speak in his name.”
He says he also suspects EPCR members have been subject to illicit pressure to have “the head of Boudjellal”.
And to think it all started with Bastareaud and a sudden flash of anger during a rugby match. No broken bones, no blood spilt but the lawyers are having a field day.