Bernard Laporte, President of France Rugby, has received a suspended sentence of two years imprisonment and a fine for corruption. He has the right to appeal.
With the men’s World Cup due next year in France, this news could hardly come at a worse time for the well-being of French rugby as a whole.
And since Laporte is the deputy to Sir Bill Beaumont as chair of World Rugby, his fate concerns the entire global family.
The other figure in the affair is the billionaire Mohed Altrad, owner of the highly successful club Montpellier and close friend of Laporte. Altrad’s name can be seen posted over every major ground on match day. I’m pretty sure I spotted it even in New Zealand for the 2021 RWC a couple of months ago.
Laporte was found guilty of offering a shirt sponsorship worth 1.8 million euros to Altrad. This was deemed to be an unacceptable case of favouritism. Later Laporte intervened successfully to reduce a fine inflicted on Montpellier on a disciplinary matter. Altrad has also been sentenced, though the terms are less severe than for Laporte.
Laporte has been a proactive leader, often visiting the women’s 7s and 15s teams to offer support and encouragement, but he has always had his enemies, perhaps inevitable in the position he held. But it was easy to imagine him enjoying the power and influence he wielded more than is sensible. He isn’t camera-shy.
His career path took him beyond being head coach of the men’s national team to becoming the Secretary of State for Sport in the French government.
He came to power within the FFR by promising to put a stop to the mega-project of building a new dedicated stadium for all France’s international matches. This plan, the big idea of his predecessor, ran into the usual problems, running way behind schedule and costing billions of euros more than originally budgeted.
A central reason for this project was the status of the Stade de France, which is owned by a private company, rather like Wembley Stadium. The FFR had to pay vast sums of money for the right to stage matches there. On one occasion, so the story goes, the authorities turned down a request for a Six Nations match because Johnny Hallyday was already booked in for a concert the same day.
The search went on for a suitable alternative. A site was found many kilometres south of Paris (not the national training centre at Marcoussis) where a racecourse had stood. Laporte won the vote; French rugby did not gain its own dedicated stadium, a lack that still galls its supporters.
Consequences
World Rugby is holding an emergency meeting to discuss the matter. Since it introduced an integrity code into its rules this year, it seems highly unlikely that Laporte can survive in office.
The position within the FFR is less clear-cut. Both men have the right to appeal. Laporte’s lawyer promised an immediate appeal. Altrad’s lawyer has said he needed to examine the court’s findings in detail before deciding whether to appeal.
All in all, this is a body blow to French rugby, and by extension, to World Rugby. Power, it would appear corrupts.
