He does not let go. Sentenced to a two-year suspended prison sentence on Tuesday for corruption and increasingly isolated at the top of French rugby, the president of the FFR, Bernard Laporte, assures in an interview with JDD that he does “don’t see why [il] should” leave his post. Resign “would mean that I recognize the facts for which I am accused. Impossible”, he retorts in the direction of those who push him to leave his functions at the head of the FFR.
“Values must be protected”
First targeted by the former coach of the XV of France: the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, who, as soon as the conviction of the court was known, had estimated in a press release sent to AFP that this sentence “an obstacle to Bernard Laporte being able, as it stands, to continue his mission in good conditions at the head of a federation delegated a public service mission, at a moment as decisive for French rugby as the last line right before a Rugby World Cup where France will receive the nations of the whole world”. Rebelote Friday in an interview at West France : Oudéa-Castera – who announced this Sunday that she will receive Laporte on Thursday – assured that “the extreme seriousness of the shortcomings found at first instance (illegal taking of interest, passive corruption, influence peddling, abuse and concealment of corporate assets) is incompatible with the good governance of a federation which has a public service mission » and called “the bodies of the French Rugby Federation [à prendre] their responsibilities”.
The same day, the ethics committee of the FFR had ordered Bernard Laporte to “withdraw temporarily, as a precaution, until a final criminal decision”. “He recalls that the best interests of rugby must prevail over particular interests, that the values of rugby, ethics and professional conduct must be protected, adds the Minister of Sports this Sunday in an interview on the site of the Team. It demonstrates that Bernard Laporte is no longer, as it stands, able to justify the credit, the authority or the confidence that the function of president imposes.
“The hope of creating a diversion”
The former manager of Stade Français and Rugby Club Toulonnais sends them, in the JDD, an end of inadmissibility: “They have the right to say what they want, I’m sure I’m innocent, he said. In addition, there are statutes, so we respect them. If 30% of the clubs and the votes demand an extraordinary general meeting, and two thirds of the registered voters vote for the resignation of the management committee, then there can be new elections. The lawyers of the president of the FFR – who on the other hand resigned from his post of vice-president of World Rugby, the international body of this sport – pointed out the fact that the Minister of Sports has “openly supported, through an association, the list of Florian Grill, opponent of the team led by Bernard Laporte”. “This line of defense, based on the hope of creating a diversion, is not worthy. It’s not fooling anyone.” Oudéa-Castéra responds this Sunday in the team, ensuring that his “only requirement” is “that of ethics and the higher interest of French rugby”.
In office since the end of 2016, the president of the FFR, re-elected in 2020 for a four-year term, was found guilty of five of the six offenses for which he was prosecuted, including passive corruption and influence peddling.