Paris (AFP)

In the middle of the campaign for his re-election at the head of the FFR, Bernard Laporte, a fighter, faces a new battle: the boss of rugby, the usual hurricane of energy, was placed in police custody on Tuesday by the national prosecutor financial.

When it comes to fighting, Laporte knows a thing or two about it, he who has always made physical domination, supported by solid conquest, the cornerstone of the game, pragmatic, of his teams.

Laporte won the one for the presidency of the FFR at the end of 2016, adding a trophy to his well-stocked wardrobe, as a player (1991 French champion with Bègles) but above all as a trainer, while he has never been international.

He thus hoisted the Stade Français from the third division to the title of champion in 1998, before winning everything with RC Toulon: three European Cups (2013, 2014 and 2015) and a Brennus Shield (2015).

His record at the head of the XV of France was marked by two Grand Slams in 2002 and 2004 but also by defeats in the World Cup, in the semi-finals in 2003 and especially 2007, at home.

- "Uncompromising" -

This time, it is on the judicial level that Bernard Laporte must lead his new battle.

The former scrum-half was taken into custody as part of a preliminary investigation opened in 2017 by the national financial prosecutor's office, which had received a report from the inspectors general of the Ministry of Sports.

Player, trainer and manager, Laporte, born in Rodez (Aveyron) of an EDF agent and a mother who accumulated hours of cleaning and delivery of La Dépêche du Midi, in mailboxes in the early morning, did not never worried about "hearsay", letting go of what he thinks, with his South-West accent and in his own way, even if it means shaking up the codes.

Even shock.

For example by qualifying as "shit bourgeois" spectators at the Stade de France, guilty of booing Frédéric Michalak while he was a coach.

Or when he calls his predecessor at the head of the XV of France Pierre Villepreux a "pipe".

Or when he compared the FFR "to North Korea" in a campaign whose defeated president Pierre Camou denounced the level.

"Bernard will never let it go, he will always say what he thinks and he is uncompromising", explained Mourad Boudjellal, its president in Toulon at the time.

"It's not someone you can buy or coax. It's not a bird whose cage you can close," he added.

"Adversity, he needs that. He shapes himself in there", engaged Serge Simon, his friend and N.2 at the Federation, also placed in police custody by the BRDE.

- Mixture of genres -

So much for the coach's tracksuit, with which he is able to terrorize his players with his black anger but also to galvanize them to get the best out of them.

But Laporte likes to mix genres, launching himself, before embracing a media career (for RMC radio), in business (wineries, restaurants, campsites, casinos) then in politics.

A fleeting career married in contact with Nicolas Sarkozy, whose jogging he shared on the banks of the Arcachon basin and who appointed him Secretary of State for Sports (2007-2009).

With the suit and tie, Laporte also stood out in a world unaccustomed to his manners and his flowery language.

© 2020 AFP