Bordeaux (AFP)
Fines of tens of thousands of euros were required Monday in Bordeaux against the Soyaux-Angoulême rugby club (Pro D2) and three leaders suspected of having defrauded Urssaf, in particular by paying players as self-employed photographers.
Fines of 20,000, 30,000 and 40,000 euros, part of which suspended, were requested against Jean Alémany and Jean-Jacques Pitcho, respectively, as co-presidents, and the latter's brother, Didier Pitcho, de facto manager at the time and current president.
All were prosecuted before the Bordeaux Criminal Court for "hidden work" as well as the club, currently 14th in ProD2, 100,000 euros fine were required, part of which was suspended.
They dispute the alleged facts.
The decision is reserved.
"You are not thugs, but rascals": the public prosecutor Marianne Poinot criticized the "slippages" and "artifices" of the club to avoid social contributions, and thus reduce its payroll.
The club, born in 2010 from the merger of Soyaux and Angoulême, found itself in the legal melee after an inspection by Urssaf in 2016, as part of increased controls on sports clubs.
According to Urssaf, the SA XV paid some 77 players amounts that should have been salaries, between 2013 and 2015.
The court looked in particular at the misappropriation of mileage allowances paid to players when they were already equipped with vehicles by sponsors and that "they did not make kilometers": "disguised salary supplements", insists the president of the tribunal Denis Roucou.
"We are not on a mafia system, organized with a payment of mileage allowances" which would be planned in advance, argues the lawyer of the club Me Frédéric Bausset.
- 21 players as autoentrepreneurs -
The club also had to explain the choice to have declared between 2014 and 2016, 21 players as self-employed photographers to be able to pay them image rights, via a company owned by Didier Pitcho, Pit Pub.
Without any invoice.
"Why a photographer? We have not found any other nomenclature for image rights. In our mind, it was legal," says Jean Alémany, a 70-year-old retiree from the hotel and restaurant industry.
At the helm, the three leaders, seasoned business leaders - or ex, present themselves as "a bunch of friends" united by the passion for rugby, but little in touch with the associative management and the mode of remuneration of the players.
"We never said that we were white as snow," defends Mr. Alémany.
"We were a young club, without experience," he apologizes.
"We were light," confirms Jean-Jacques Pitcho.
In his eyes, these evaded contributions would only come from a simple "optimization".
"You were aware of the methods of remuneration of the players", insists the prosecutor.
At the material time, the club was evolving in the amateur levels in Federal 2 then 1, before its accession, in ProD2 under professional status, in May 2016. Pinned by the DNACG, the financial policeman of rugby had finally given it a fire green.
"We were the club that disturbed, we went up too quickly", analysis afterwards Jean-Jacques Pitcho.
"This is the story of a club that has grown too quickly, this club is an extraordinary collective adventure (...) but this passion has blinded you," said the prosecutor.
"The club did not have the means for its ambitions," said Urssaf's lawyer, Laurent Beneteau.
Hence the temptation for the club to find "subterfuge" to "evade social legislation".
Urssaf is claiming from the club some 500,000 euros in damages and, in the context of a tax adjustment procedure, more than 2.2 million euros.
© 2020 AFP