A rugby ball during the match between South Africa and Samoa during the World Cup on September 9, 2007 at Parc des Princes in Paris.

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Level / SIPA

The Bordeaux criminal court on Monday sentenced the Soyaux-Angoulême rugby club and three of its leaders to fines for "hidden work" in the "player photographers" case.

The association in its capacity as a legal person was fined 100,000 euros (including 70,000 euros suspended).

Jean Alémany and Jean-Jacques Pitcho, as co-presidents, and the latter's brother, Didier Pitcho, de facto manager at the time and current president received fines of 20,000, 30,000 and 40,000 euros, part of which was suspended .

"You are not thugs, but rascals," said the prosecutor in her critical indictment of the "slippage" 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.

Mileage costs and autoentrepreneur status

The court particularly looked into the alleged misappropriation of mileage allowances paid to players when they were already equipped with vehicles by sponsors and that "they were not doing kilometers", or possible "additional salaries disguised ”, according to the president of the court Denis Roucou.

The club also had to explain the choice to declare, between 2014 and 2016, 21 players as “self-entrepreneurs to be photographers”, in order to be able to pay them image rights, via a company owned by Didier Pitcho, Pit Pub.

Without any invoice.

And the players had never been photographers.

At the material time, the club was evolving in the amateur levels in Federal 2 then 1, before its accession, in Pro D2 under professional status, in May 2016.

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  • Sport

  • Fine

  • Court

  • Pro D2

  • Rugby

  • Poitou-Charentes

  • Labor Code

  • Angouleme