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Upwards of a dozen ex-Stade Francais players are taking legal action against the Parisian club

By Online Editors
Craig Burden, in action here for a World XV versus South Africa, is allegedly one of the players taking legal action against Stade Francais (Photo by Carl Fourie/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Stade Francais are allegedly facing court action in September from a number of former players who feel cheated due to non-payment from their company savings plan. 

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French daily L’Equipe has reported that upwards of a dozen players, including the likes of Lorenzo Cittadini, Emmanuel Felsina, Sakaria Taulafo, Craig Burden, Bakary Meïté, Charl McLeod, Paul Williams, Romain Martial and Marvin O’Connor, who all left the Parisian club at the end of the 2017/18 season, believe they are each owed between €19,000 and €20,000.

They all exited the club at a time when administrators were told to radically cut the payroll and they have now officially taken legal action against their former employer. 

It is believed a date for September has been set for first conciliation talks between the parties at the French labour court. The players are trying to assert their rights to a payment that is usually included in the contracts they sign and can be considered as part of the remuneration.

If an agreement is not reached between the two parties at the labour court, they would move to a tie-breaker hearing before the Conseil des Prud’Hommes.

The revelation of this court action is the latest unsettling story to emerge about the under-achieving Parisian club now owned by Hans-Pieter Wild. 

They have failed to qualify for the Top 14 play-offs for the fourth consecutive season, have reputedly recorded an operating deficit of €35milllion over the course of the past two years, and a series of internal wrangling has led to the messy departures of some high profile people. 

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That list includes ousted coach Julien Dupuy, Bordeaux-bound Alexandre Flanquart, Bayonne signing Djibril Camara and long-serving talisman Sergio Parisse, who quit last Friday and was quickly announced as a Toulon acquisition on Monday.  

South African head coach Heyneke Meyer has also lost the services of his two Irish assistants for next season after Mike Prendergast took up a role at cross-city rivals Racing 92 and Paul O’Connell opted against taking up the second year of his contract. 

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Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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