The former French international, ambassador of the planetary meeting, acquired a hundred tickets which he would have redistributed to relatives, according to information from the “Parisian”, confirmed by a source close to the investigation.
Room for explanations. According to information from Parisianconfirmed by a source close to the investigation, the former head of the hexagonal rugby gondola Sébastien Chabal, ambassador of the 2023 World Cup, was able to buy a hundred tickets, thus circumventing the rules of sale limiting to eight the number of places per employee of the organizing committee.
“Questions arise on the hypothesis of ticket trafficking but nothing is established at this stage”, underlines a source close to the investigation. Another former rugby player, Henri Mioch, project manager for the organization of the World Cup between 2017 and 2020, is suspected of having bought some 600 tickets, completes this source.
“Yes, I had privileged access to buy more tickets than can be done by one person, due to my status as France-2023 ambassador.reacted Sébastien Chabal via a press release. I didn’t get any freebies or preferential rates. And no, I don’t intend to make a profit on these places.defended the former third line (45 years old, 62 selections between 2000 and 2011), rejecting any traffic. “It is obvious that these places cannot be resold by those who will benefit from them. It is just as inconceivable that they can be used for commercial operations.
“I didn’t know there were quotas”
Later in the day, on the set of the Canal Rugby Club where he occupies a place of consultant, Chabal assured not to know “that there were quota places for the ambassadors of France-2023”. Before continuing: “As you can imagine, I received a lot of requests for places from my family, my friends and those around me. So I asked for a hundred places from the organizing committee, which was accepted.
The former Lyon or Bourgoin-Jallieu player also joked on Instagram, posting a story with this message: “Sell tickets for the Rugby World Cup #France2023 not ‘very’ expensive. Contact me in DM (private messaging, editor’s note)”. The former international “understand that this shocks”. He adds : “It’s not going to clear me. I understand that people are angry and frustrated but the beneficiaries of the places that I redistribute have also been frustrated in front of their computer screens”estimating that “It’s not that serious”.
These purchases were discovered during searches carried out in November, in particular at the headquarters of the public interest group (GIP) France-2023, responsible for organizing the Rugby World Cup. These searches were held as part of the investigation opened in October by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) targeting acts of favouritism, influence peddling and corruption, and entrusted to the gendarmes of the Paris research section.
This investigation had been opened following a joint report from the General Inspectorate of Finance and the General Inspectorate of Education aimed at “past deals”, “Ticketing” et “vehicles made available” of the former director general of the GIP, Claude Atcher. The latter was definitively dismissed in October because of his managerial practices considered brutal.