Bordeaux (AFP)

"What is a title compared to all these dead?", Launched Thursday with AFP Laurent Marti, president of Bordeaux-Bègles largely at the top of the Top 14 at the announcement of the end of the championship which should not award a crown this season.

Q: As expected, the season ended for you on March 1 ...

A: "Yes, it is over. The sanitary conditions do not allow it to be finished properly. At first, a month and a half ago, I fought so that we could finish this season if the sanitary conditions allowed, making it as fair as possible. Then there was a second phase linked to the medical report of the League which told us + attention, we have doubts about the safety of players as this virus has an affinity for the heart +. From there, I tell myself that we are not going to put the players too quickly in training without having a test, that's what the medical profession told us and we had no guarantee of having tests. It was getting too dangerous so we forgot about it. "

Q: What feelings do you have this season?

A: "A lot of people tell us + you really have no luck, a year when you had started so well ... + Yes, that's right, we would have liked to defend our chances until the end. But d "First, you say to yourself, what is a title in relation to all these deaths that we have known? We just lost Jean-Marc Manducher, the ex-president of Oyonnax, who was a fantastic guy. I am divided. At the same time, I tell myself that there is something that we cannot take away from us, that is that in two-thirds of the season, never has a team had so many ahead of his chasers. We were 25,000 spectators on average, nobody has ever done so well. We had fabulous matches, an extraordinary atmosphere at the stadium, in the team, in the club. "remove. There is not a title that materializes it, but the reasons why it is not materialized are much more serious than a name engraved on a shield".

Q: UBB is the moral winner of the Top 14, would you accept this title?

A: "Morale, I don't know what that means. We know that we largely dominated this championship, that this championship goes through final stages and that in final stages, you can lose. So we remain very humble by related to that. "

Q: At the end of March, the idea of ​​a bonus-malus was circulated so that this season is not completely white. It is still up to date ?

A: "This is one of the things that disappointed me a lot in this crisis. The pace with which the presidents of Top 14 as well as Pro D2 swept away by vote all possibilities of giving any advantage to those who had "Advance in the standings deeply disgusted me. For the Pro D2, it's even more unfair. They are 75% of the matches played, we tell them 'you don't go up' and we give them no advantage points".

Q: Before talking about the recovery, there is also the question of the salaries of the players to manage.

A: "As far as I'm concerned, I haven't spoken to my players yet so I'm not going to do it in the press. There is just one general point which is to say that if there is not a collective effort at all stages of the club, the clubs will die. This is point N.1. Personally, I expect that we have a slightly clearer vision of when we replay, knowing how the partners are going to follow, is the state going to help us, before going to see the open book players and tell them + these are the guys where we are, this is the effort you need to make otherwise the club could disappear + "

Q: Do you see yourself resuming next season behind closed doors before returning to normal?

A: "We may be forced to do so, but it would be terrible because the rugby economy would not support in camera. We cannot live in camera. 20% of our revenue only comes from TV rights, 80% comes from of everything we do around the pitch. So we won't hold up despite a drop in player salaries. "

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