Marcoussis (France) (AFP)

He wanted to "continue and transform the test", it was fair but it was understood: Bernard Laporte was re-elected president of the French Rugby Federation (FFR), Saturday in Marcoussis, ahead of a short head his opponent Florian Grill .

At the end of a stormy campaign, marked by exchanges of courtesies and police custody for Bernard Laporte in an investigation for favoritism, his list received 51.47% of the votes of the elective general assembly, ahead of that of opposition, led by the president of the Ile-de-France regional league (48.53%).

The list led by the former coach (2004-2007) and former Secretary of State for Sports (2007-2009) won the majority of the 40 seats on the new management committee.

And Laporte was appointed president of the FFR.

Grill did not immediately comment on its narrow loss.

"To be elected on promises is one thing, to be re-elected on a balance sheet is another," said the former coach of Toulon and Stade Français after his victory.

"The clubs were not fooled. Democracy has spoken. I will be the president of all the clubs," he added.

This success of Laporte came to crown his strategy, closer to the clubs during the health crisis then economic: at the end of March, the president of the FFR thus announced an aid of 35 million euros to "relieve" the approximately 1,900 member associations.

In 2016, when he beat outgoing president Pierre Camou (2008-2016) and former secretary general Alain Doucet (2001-2016), Laporte left early, beating the pavement more than a year before the vote.

This time he waited until July.

"With what we went through, we had to be up to the task, at the clubs. With the recovery plan, it was a lot, a lot of work, a lot a lot, videoconferences", he explained at the time of the announcement of his candidacy in July.

In total, his campaign lasted 40 days for 28 meetings.

Sufficient to convince the majority of voters.

- "The president of all clubs" -

All in a heavy atmosphere with media attacks, coming from both camps: Laporte felt that his opponent was "cowardly" and "kicked a player down" while, in the opposition camp, we speak of "assault on the back" (Grill), "clan governance" (Benazzi) or "suicidal method" (Lhermet).

Laporte's legal woes have therefore not prompted the clubs to turn their backs on him.

Heard by the Economic Crime Repression Brigade (BRDE) and placed in police custody ten days before the election, he is notably suspected of having favored the Montpellier club by intervening with the appeal committee of the FFR to reduce sanctions against the Hérault training, end of June 2017.

Question fight, the former coach of the Blues knows it, he who has always made physical domination, supported by a solid conquest, the cornerstone of the game, pragmatic, of his teams.

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.

He will therefore be the president of the FFR on the way to the 2023 World Cup in France.

Laporte dreams aloud of a double world coronation, first in 2021 with the women's XV, then two years later, at home, with the men's XV.

© 2020 AFP