Paris (AFP)
No conciliation and a campaign that could turn into a legal confrontation: the election to the French Rugby Federation (FFR), maintained on October 3 despite the opposition's request for postponement, promises to be increasingly tense .
"We will use all possible means." Contacted by AFP, Florian Grill, candidate against outgoing President Bernard Laporte, made no secret of his intention to launch an interim procedure to try to postpone the federal elections to December 12.
Seized as conciliator by Ovale Ensemble, the opposition list, on the grounds that confinement had put an end to his campaign, the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) on Wednesday advised a postponement of two months in order to " securing "the election, that is to say by canceling the risk of legal recourse.
But the CNOSF also agreed with the FFR by declaring that "nothing imposed a priori" the postponement. Considering itself "in its right", the FFR therefore confirmed the date of October 3 and put forward guarantees of proper "democratic functioning": electronic and decentralized voting, removal of proxies ...
Not enough to satisfy Florian Grill who declared himself a candidate very early, in June 2019, but considers himself injured by the two months of confinement during which he was unable to lead a classic campaign. A point on which the CNOSF gave him reason.
- An illegal manifesto? -
If he goes up to the judicial front, it is because the president of the Ile-de-France League says he has other arguments to make: the lack of equality on access to the club file and publication in May of a manifesto, signed by 16 presidents of regional leagues, in support of outgoing governance.
For Grill, supported by 7 former internationals including Serge Blanco, Fabien Pelous, Abdelatif Benazzi and Jean-Claude Skrela, "the use of the means of the Fed and the Leagues" by the outgoing president is "a real prank in the electoral code" .
The FFR considers that the opponent's campaign was not really interrupted during the confinement, his team having communicated by videoconference and on social networks, and that the legal risk incurred is therefore "minor". Above all, it points to the risk of a second epidemic wave if the elections are postponed to December: "the health uncertainty at the end of the year represents a real risk".
- What budget for 2021? -
It also represents a risk for the funds of the Federation, which relies on 6 matches of the XV of France in the fall, against 3 usually, to fill them. A bet denounced by Ovale Ensemble, which claims that the 2020-2021 budget takes into account a full Stade de France (80,000 seats) on October 31 to welcome Ireland.
False, answers the Federation, which claims to have foreseen the hypothesis of a cancellation of the fall tests. "The good financial health of the FFR would allow it to be able to take on this difficult situation without endangering it," says the body in a document which AFP has obtained a copy of.
Laporte's team says they have studied a budget reduced by 15 to 20% if the crisis were to last and intends to maintain at all costs its support plan for amateur clubs, endowed with 21 million euros.
"French rugby can count on the robust financial situation of the FFR with a cash position of 76 million euros, including 59 million in insurance funds, capital estimated at 32.5 million and nearly 110 million insured until 2024 thanks to to our partner contracts, ”says treasurer Alexandre Martinez in the same document.
The war of numbers, already in force since 2016 on the decline in licensees (-32,000 as the FFR says, -54,000 as the opposition advances), now risks being coupled with a legal battle ...
© 2020 AFP