During this consultation, the 1,490 clubs responded electronically to the following question: "Do you approve of Mr. Bernard Laporte's proposal to appoint Mr. Patrick Buisson as Deputy President of the FFR?"

After counting the votes on Thursday noon, the result will be submitted to the ethics and professional conduct committee of French rugby, guarantor of the ballot, and communicated the same evening to the press and licensees on the FFR website.

It will then be approved on Friday morning by the steering committee in Marcoussis (Essonne), in the presence of the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castera who, as soon as Bernard Laporte was convicted for corruption on December 13, had demanded that he be sidelined and new elections.

Even if he is close to Bernard Laporte, Patrick Buisson "really hopes to embody the end of business", told AFP last week this 67-year-old former scrum-half, vice-president in charge of amateur rugby at the FFR and former leader of the club of Uzès (Gard) and of the committee of Provence.

Unless this referendum allows the opposition, embodied by the president of the Ile-de-France League Florian Grill, to tip the clubs into the "no" camp and hope for new elections.

"Corruption Pact"

What opponents of Bernard Laporte have been asking for in vain since his first instance sentence to a two-year suspended prison sentence for having entered into a "corruption pact" with the businessman and president of the Montpellier club Mohed Altrad.

Having appealed the decision, his sentence, together with the ban on exercising his activity as president of the FFR, is not immediately enforceable.

Bernard Laporte and Mohed Altrad, the president of the Montpellier rugby club, during a Six Nations match, February 6, 2022 at the Stade de France © FRANCK FIFE / AFP / Archives

As such, he refused to resign, but accepted, under joint pressure from the Minister of Sports, the National Rugby League (LNR) and the FFR's ethics committee, to step back behind a deputy president until the appeal trial, which should only take place after the 2023 World Cup in France (September 8-Oct 28).

Previously responsible for digital reform and simplification at the FFR during Bernard Laporte's first term, Patrick Buisson will, if appointed deputy president, be suspected of allowing the former coach of the Blues to continue to pull the strings from French rugby to the World Cup.

Chance of the calendar -or not?-, this is the moment that the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) chose to summon the still president of the FFR and place him in police custody on Tuesday for a few hours, before going out free, within the framework of an investigation opened for money laundering of aggravated tax fraud.

Another blow for Bernard Laporte, two weeks before the start of the Six Nations Tournament, of which the Blues are defending champions.

© 2023 AFP