The big maneuvers have begun… Two months before the election of the president of the French Rugby Federation on October 19, internal turmoil is shaking the institution, already shaken by the Jaminet and Auradou-Jegou affairs and the disappearance at sea of the young Medhi Narjissi during a tour in South Africa at the beginning of the month.
This Friday, nineteen members of the steering committee sent a motion of no confidence to Florian Grill, in office since June 14, 2023. The latter had succeeded Alexandre Martinez who had taken over after the resignation of Bernard Laporte on January 27, 2023, forced to give up his place after his two-year suspended sentence at first instance (he appealed) for a corruption pact with the president of Montpellier and sponsor of the French XV Mohed Altrad.
The subject of the discord? “We are warning about your solitary exercise of power, which makes you consider the Steering Committee as, at best, a simple recording chamber,” is written in the letter. “We have noted on many occasions, on many subjects, a recurring lack, even an absence of consultation and communication on important and structuring decisions for federal life…”
“We are warning about your use of federal resources for electoral purposes”
“We are warning about your personal and incessant communication actions, often contradictory, which in view of your institutional position, engage the responsibility, the image and the credibility of the Federation, its elected representatives, its employees and the clubs that elected us, the text continues… We are warning about your use of federal means for electoral purposes. Your decision to convene a general meeting of rugby, less than 8 weeks before an election of the Steering Committee and the President, seems to us, as such, incompatible with the electoral calendar.”
Behind this rather vague message, an opposition is actually being structured in view of the next elections. A good number of former supporters of Bernard Laporte and running mates of Didier Codorniou, mayor of Gruissan (Aude) and former three-quarter center of the XV of France, who declared himself a candidate for the presidency of the FFR last June, are in fact among the nineteen signatories, like Guilhem Guirado, the former captain and hooker of the Blues. A minority group but not insignificant within a steering committee composed of forty members. To the point that this Friday, while the Steering Committee was meeting in Marcoussis, headquarters of the FFR in Essonne, with a view to organizing the States General of Rugby wanted by Florian Grill and set for August 29, the nineteen protesters obtained a first “success”. The president of the FFR was in fact forced to cancel the States General that was close to his heart. While a few members of his majority were missing from the Steering Committee, Florian Grill was unable to put his proposal to the vote, according to information from Le Figaro that we are able to confirm.
A missed opportunity to discuss the flaws in French rugby revealed by the misconduct during the French XV’s tour in Argentina, to learn lessons and take measures. “We expect the most iconic players to set an example,” the president of the FFR told us on Wednesday. “We need to establish scales with financial sanctions and also sporting sanctions such as the suspension of the French team… At a time when everything is calculated and weighed, we cannot understand these drunken evenings until five in the morning. We will address this subject during the general assembly.” Pointing out that the deadlines were too short, the opposition wanted otherwise. The big debate will be transformed into a simple working meeting between members of the French Federation and the National League.