Laporte vs Grill: Final hours in the battle for France rugby's top job
The Federation Francaise de Rugby headed by Bernard Laporte this week announced an increase in the number of registered players at the start of the season compared to the same time last year. Though the news is apparently good for the game in France, the registration period is far from over. So, the unusual timing of the announcement is notable and it’s not because of coronavirus.
The news that the number of registered players in France was more than 8,800 higher than early October 2019 when, traditionally, only two-thirds of player registrations are complete, broke as voting started in the FFR presidential election.
Outside rugby in France, the fact Laporte was up for re-election had pretty much sailed under a radar overwhelmed by Covid-19. At least, it had until last week, when Monsieur le President – along with Mohed Altrad, FFR vice-president Serge Simon, World Cup 2023 head was Claude Atcher, and the FFR’s international relations chief Nicolas Hourquet – were arrested in connection with a three-year-old police investigation into a conflict of interest scandal.
There’s never a good time to spend 35 hours in police custody before being released without charge. But the timing, ten days before the election, could not have been worse for Laporte. He came out swinging, suggesting the arrests were part of a conspiracy timed to affect his election chances.
Opponent Florian Grill has pretty much refused to comment on the arrests, although he did scoff at Laporte’s conspiracy theory. He even gave an interview while Laporte was in custody in order to refuse to comment, and – in 2016 US election parlance – ‘go high when they go low’.
Free to go… for now https://t.co/hHtEx1hrxq
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 24, 2020
But who is the man who would be president? Outside French rugby circles, the 54-year-old is relatively unknown. He is the founder, president and CEO of marketing and media consulting agency CoSpirit MediaTrack. He owns a wine estate near Montpellier – and has been chairman of the Île-de-France Regional Rugby League since 2017 following the first electronic voting procedure in French rugby history.
A similar electronic voting process is in use for the FFR presidential election. The result should be known early on Saturday afternoon. Grill was a friend of former FFR president Pierre Camou and was an active supporter of his campaign when he was ousted in 2016 by Laporte. Camou died in August 2018, having been a key member of France’s successful bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
He announced his candidacy for French rugby’s top job in June 2019 and formally launched his campaign in January with the backing of a formidable list of supporters, including Serge Blanco, Eric Champ, Abdelatif Benazzi, Thomas Castaignede, Jean-Marc Lhermet – who would become vice-president of the FFR if Grill wins on Saturday, former head of the French referees Didier Mené, Fabien Pelous, Julien Pierre and Jean-Claude Skrela.
It’s no surprise to see Guy Noves is a supporter, given the history between himself and Laporte. So is another France coach, Marc Lievremont. Grill wants to warm-up generally frosty relations between the FFR and LNR, which runs the professional game in France, so he probably also has the tacit support of outgoing LNR president Paul Goze, whose second and final term is almost over.
He also plans to allocate €2million per year over four years to clubs that commit to developing rugby in primary schools as part of a project known as the 1,000 School Ambassadors and raise awareness of rugby’s safety projects in schools; is seeking to modernise rugby’s image in France to attract young people back to the game; and wants to create a series of more localised ‘rugby territories’ in conjunction with France’s amateur leagues.
For most of his campaigning, Grill has been – according to periodic polls in the sports pages – well behind Laporte in the race. But following Laporte’s arrest-and-release, polls have been much closer. One, in Le Figaro, showed Grill marginally ahead and attracted the ire of the current president, who claimed the survey was flawed.
Laporte originally won the presidency by courting amateur clubs and repeated the trick with smaller nations when guiding France’s winning World Cup bid. He’s playing the same tune again, seeking to cement his place at the head of the FFR table by appealing to those outside the upper echelons of the game.
He has promised to spend some of the estimated €13m a year that the FFR would receive from the much publicised but as-yet unconfirmed Six Nations deal with CVC to cover all the costs of referees in the amateur game, saving clubs several thousand euros a year.
He wants to use the push to the 2023 World Cup to attract another 100,000 players to the game in France, in part by using the rejuvenated international side as a shop window. And he has said he would remove a layer of administration by creating direct financial and advisory links between the FFR and clubs. Currently, FFR funds are paid to the leagues in France, which then distribute money to the clubs.
He, too, has a long list of supporters. Simon, his VP, Atcher and Altrad head a list that includes Stade Francais’ Thomas Lombard; former Toulon boss Mourad Boudjellal; Stade Francais’ legendary owner Max Guazzini; ex-France internationals Guilhem Guirado, Pascal Pape, and Serge Betsen; Top 14 club presidents Didier Lacroix and Jeff Fonteneau. Current France coach Fabien Galthie, who recently described his rugby career as ‘inextricably linked’ with Laporte and questioned his own future if Grill was elected, is also in the current president’s camp.
But there’s no doubting his campaign, which saw him host 28 meetings in little more than a month from mid-August, was derailed by what happened less than a fortnight ago in Paris. Who will be the next president of the FFR? We should find out sometime on Saturday.
?? Tout savoir savoir sur les #ÉlectionsFFR !
Depuis ce matin 8h et jusqu'à demain 12h, les clubs de rugby votent afin d'élire le Comité Directeur et le président de la FFR.
Explications ?
— France Rugby (@FranceRugby) October 2, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to comments