In July 2018, after an incident involving a Toulon player that Mourad Boudjellal had defended, the EPCR (European Professional Club Rugby) had qualified the behavior of the Toulon president as "homophobic" and Mourad Boudjellal had been sentenced to 75,000 euros. fine by the disciplinary committee of the organizers of the European Cup and the European Challenge, for "inappropriate conduct".
Boudjellal then lodged a complaint, denouncing "harassment" and "abuse of power".
In February 2020, the former boss of the RCT won a first judicial round: the body governing European competitions and its director general Vincent Gaillard had been condemned by the Toulon criminal court.
Rebelote in October 2020: the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal had confirmed the conviction of the body and its leader.
But in its judgment of 23 November, consulted by AFP, the Court of Cassation "breaks and annuls, in all its provisions, the aforementioned judgment of the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence, dated 5 October 2020 ", without pronouncing a referral of the case, which is therefore closed.
At the origin of the case, the attitude of Boudjellal, who had reacted to a quote from his player Mathieu Bastareaud for a homophobic insult before the disciplinary committee "by remarks which, among other things demonstrated homophobic behavior, and demonstrated discrimination ", then attacked the EPCR in its press release.
At the time, the RCT leader sharply questioned the words written about him in the EPCR press release.
But the Court of Cassation notably considered that the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal could not know whether the press release had "distorted" the disciplinary decision taken against Mourad Boudjellal, recalling also that the latter had "taken the floor to relativize the homophobic character of an insult pronounced by one of the players of the club".
© 2021 AFP