2023-06-14 17:33:43
Perseverance pays. Florian Grill is the new president of the French Rugby Federation, elected this Wednesday, June 14 with 58.14% of the votes of some 1,900 clubs invited to vote electronically since the start of the week. A large victory for the boss of the Regional League of Île-de-France, especially since the expression of the clubs is massive: they participated in 92.5%, representing 95.47% of the possible routes.
The result rewards a long-standing positioning. Since his election to the FFR Steering Committee in 2016, Florian Grill has embodied the opposition to Bernard Laporte, who had just taken the keys to the oval house. The HEC graduate, who arrived on the list of former president Pierre Camou (from 2008 to 2016), very quickly takes stock of what he considers to be the “Laporte system”summarized in the sulphate as a “clan functioning, between friends”.
Firm opposing the “Laporte system”
As of 2018, the case is heard: “I tried to work with the Laporte teams, but either you agree on everything or you are a sworn enemy. So I’m plagued, does he let go on a daily basis The Parisian. Friends, he therefore makes elsewhere, and enough to believe the conquest of the federation possible from 2020, when Bernard Laporte calls into play his mandate. Alas: with 48.53% of the vote, he misses the mark for the first time, but not without noticing that he still represents almost half of the family. Good reason not to let go.
On December 13, 2022, Bernard Laporte was given a two-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of €75,000, in particular for passive corruption, influence peddling and illegal taking of interests. When he resigns in January 2023, Florian Grill remains faithful to his line of conduct, resigning with some of his supporters from the steering committee in the hope of the rapid holding of an elective general meeting. But nothing to do. Even in the absence of its leader, the management team held firm. That a major part (51.06%) of the oval refuses in February 2023 to dub the vice-president Patrick Buisson to ensure the interim at the head of the institution hardly moves him. The treasurer of the FFR, Alexandre Martinez, takes care of the job, the time to set up a new electoral process to designate the new president until the end of the normal mandate at the end of 2024.
It is with these rules that the clubs have just decided, having to choose between Florian Grill and Patrick Buisson, whom the management team did not hesitate to put back on track. Bad pick ? Still, to vote again it was necessary to replenish the steering committee emptied of 12 resigners. Thing done at the end of May, the supporters of Florian Grill, grouped under the Ovale together label, found 11 of the 12 seats. The snub for the team in place announced the trend. She suddenly rushed to campaign to the tune of “us or chaos”, the “Laportians” still holding 27 of the 38 seats on the steering committee.
A delicate coexistence
The argument can be summed up in a few words: caution first, because it would be useless to jostle the FFR a few weeks before the World Cup organized by France. Florian Grill for his part applied himself to visiting the territories to affirm his conviction that“twenty people cannot block a federation”. Obviously, he was heard. The clubs did not hesitate to sanction the team in place again, preferring a new face at the head of the FFR, even if it meant imposing a delicate cohabitation on it at the level of the authorities.
Because that’s what it is. Florian Grill may well emerge victorious from a long fight, he must now deal with a steering committee in which he is currently in a very small minority. Such a scenario is a first for a sports federation. Before the election, the team in place had warned to try to convince the clubs: “The steering committee in place will not compromise. »
Should we expect a blockage? First element of response this Thursday, June 15, with a first meeting of this steering committee in Marcoussis, the headquarters of the XV of France and the FFR. The atmosphere promises to be sporty. And as it should be: the sequel to the next episode.
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