The strong man of rugby in front of the judges.

Bernard Laporte, powerful boss of the French Federation (FFR), appears Wednesday, September 7 in Paris for corruption and influence peddling alongside other French rugby personalities, in a trial scrutinized one year from the World Cup in the 'Hexagon.

Summoned to the criminal court at 1:30 p.m., the former coach of the Blues (2000-2007) is suspected of having, for consideration, favored his friend and co-defendant, the multi-billionaire businessman Mohed Altrad, whose group of In 2017, BTP won the first jersey sponsorship contract in the history of the XV of France. 

Montpellier Hérault Rugby, the Top 14 club owned by Mohed Altrad, would also have benefited from several favorable decisions, through Bernard Laporte, who will have to answer in particular for "passive corruption", "illegal taking of interests" and " passive influence peddling".

Claude Atcher, recently suspended from his duties as general manager of the 2023 World Cup, and the vice-president of the FFR, Serge Simon, are also among the five defendants who will parade at the helm until September 22.

180,000 euros of contract "never executed"

Renowned for his outspokenness, Nicolas Sarkozy's former Secretary of State for Sports promises to fight "perfectly artificial grievances" and to show that he has always acted "in the interest of the federation", assures the AFP his lawyer Me Jean-Pierre Versini-Campinchi.

The friendship and business ties between Bernard Laporte and Mohed Altrad form the heart of this file which has shaken French rugby.

In February 2017, they signed a contract under which Bernard Laporte, who had just become president of the FFR, agreed to participate in communication operations for the Altrad group and ceded his image rights to it.

All in return for a compensation of 180,000 euros.

Problem, according to the prosecution: the sum is paid in 2017 but the contract will never be executed.

At the same time, during this period, the boss of French rugby intervened several times in support of Mohed Altrad, arousing the suspicions of the executive who took legal action at the end of 2017.

Several decisions by Laporte in favor of his friend's club

In March 2017, Bernard Laporte thus signed, on behalf of the FFR but without notifying its marketing division, a first contract of 1.8 million euros which made Altrad the jersey sponsor of the Blues.

The name of the group still appears there today under another contract of 35 million euros concluded in January 2018, still under the auspices of Bernard Laporte, in which the PNF sees the mark of corruption.

Other interventions made the investigators wince.

In June 2017, Bernard Laporte joined the Federal Disciplinary Commission which imposed a fine of 70,000 euros on the Montpellier club.

After this phone call, the penalty will be reduced to 20,000 euros.

In March 2017, Laporte and his federation also opposed the decision of the National Rugby League, in charge of the professional sector, to postpone two Top 14 matches, one of which was to be played by Montpellier, a postponement to which Mohed Altrad was notoriously opposed.

Seized, the Council of State will question "the legality" of the decision of the FFR.

Behind these interventions, the PNF sees illicit elevator referrals when the defense denounces "false causal links" and recalls that he gave up his contract with Mohed Altrad in the summer of 2017, after first revelations in the press .

"There has never been a pattern of corruption and everyone has acted in accordance with their duties", maintains Me Antoine Vey, Mohed Altrad's lawyer, who castigates a "file of nothing at all" and based on "intellectual constructs".

  With AFP

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