2023-06-27 23:56:57
He too will not have resisted the wind of renewal. Serge Simon, vice-president of the French Rugby Federation and loyal to Bernard Laporte, will resign from “all his functions” within the FFR in order to “give way” to the new governance embodied by Florian Grill, a-t – he announced this Tuesday to AFP.
“I made the decision to resign from all my functions at the FFR, including that of the steering committee”, declared the ex-pillar, elected since 2016 and the first term of Bernard Laporte, who resigned from his position as president on January 27 after his court sentence to a two-year suspended prison sentence for having entered into a “corruption pact” with the president of Montpellier Mohed Altrad. “The clubs have voted, have expressed something very, very clear that needs to be heard: they want a new president, a new team so we have to make way for the new governance,” continued Simon, 55.
Serge Simon had been vice-president in charge of high performance since 2016, and therefore as such of the French teams, a title he had kept during the re-election of Bernard Laporte in 2020. It is a priori Jean-Marc Lhermet , the former emblematic third line of Clermont and right arm of the new president of the FFR, who should replace him in this function.
“You have to have the elegance to step back and let others do better”
Member of the federal office (16 members) and of the steering committee (40 members), Serge Simon, a doctor in civilian life, was also responsible for relations between the FFR and the League (LNR). “If you could sum it up in one sentence, I would say that up until now I felt like part of the solution and now I feel like part of the problem,” continued Simon to explain his decision.
With the approach of the steering committee on Thursday and, above all, of the general assembly of the FFR on Saturday, the former pillar of Bègles-Bordeaux period “Rapetous” prefers that everything “be clear before, in order to leave all the necessary latitude the new governance to make the decisions it wants to make”.
President of the Ile-de-France League, Florian Grill, leader of the “Ovale Ensemble” collective, was elected on June 14 by more than 58% by some 1,900 French clubs. A longtime opponent of Laporte, whose relatives supported the candidacy of Patrick Buisson, he is in office until the end of 2024, the time to complete the second term, interrupted, of the former coach of the Blues and ex-minister of Sports.
“You have to have the elegance to step back and let the others certainly do better,” added Simon, while saying he was “very proud” of the results of the “former team” chaired by Bernard Laporte who, -he recalled, notably obtained the organization of the 2023 World Cup in France (September 8-October 28).
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