Friday morning, it is she who officially announces the resignation of Bernard Laporte at the exit of a steering committee of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) where she had invited herself to "send messages".

And to let go as a professional epitaph of the one whose head she wants: "he is someone who has brought to French rugby, he also has positive elements in his balance sheet", before heading to Saint-Denis to visit the Olympic aquatic center alongside Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.

For several weeks, "she has been putting skillful pressure", observes Emmanuelle Bonnet-Oulaldj, co-president of the Sports and Gymnastics Federation of Labor (FSGT), from another political side, and a fine connoisseur of the federal sports world.

"We needed a chef in the shop", explained a few weeks ago the boss of Insep and former judo champion Fabien Canu, already seduced.

"It's the return of a political minister", slams a former elected official who rubs shoulders with her.

Many sports players salute the "courage" of this "beautiful intellectual mechanism" in the face of figures in French sport deemed to be unstoppable.

Justice and the press have also been there.

In four months, the two figures of French rugby, Claude Atcher and Bernard Laporte, have been erased from the photo of the future World Cup in September 2023.

From the very detailed investigation of the newspaper l'Equipe in June on the managerial practices of Claude Atcher at the head of the organizing committee of the Mondial-2023, the minister drew a weapon little used under the Macron presidencies: launching the inspection work.

"President's Ear"

After a summer spent "hanging on", Claude Atcher is pushed out, over the course of the judicial inquiries which follow the administrative inquiries.

"Macron called Laporte to tell him to let go of Atcher, if it had been that + AOC + (Editor's note, the acronym of the minister) he might have resisted", believes a source from the sports world.

As for Bernard Laporte, he was immediately struck by lightning after his two-year suspended sentence for corruption in December: this "obstructs" his remaining at the head of the rugby federation and he must there be elections.

Coming from the same promo of Ena as Emmanuel Macron, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra "has the ear of the president", explains to AFP a former elected macronist.

And it's hard to imagine that on the subject of the future of the president of the French Football Federation (FFF) Noël Le Graët, he is the subject of an audit whose conclusions will not be long in coming and a preliminary investigation for "harassment sexual", not everything is piloted in concert with the Elysée.

French President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and Minister of Sports and the Olympic Games Amélie Oudéa-Castéra during the interministerial Olympic committee on September 29, 2022 in Paris © BENOIT TESSIER / POOL/AFP/Archives

"She plays her role as minister without intrusion, she respects the autonomy of the federations", notes Emmanuelle Bonnet-Oulaldj.

"She is an enarque who was at the head of a federation (tennis, editor's note) and who knows the environment of federations and the state very well", she adds.

- Culture +Excel+-

Because the border between the expression of the supervisory authority – transformed since 2021 into a contract with the State – and the interference in the autonomy of the federations is thin.

The Minister also takes great care to regularly affirm that she respects this autonomy.

She also launched an inspection of the Ice Sports Federation after the election of Gwenaelle Noury, an unknown suspected of being guided by former president Didier Gailhaguet.

"She shows that she can make things happen, maybe sometimes she goes a little too far and too quickly", comments to AFP senator LR Michel Savin, after his baptism of fire in the final of the C1 at the Stade de France.

"+ Don't crack under pressure +", she had tweeted before a hearing in the Senate.

The Minister of Sports and the Olympic Games Amélie Oudéa-Castéra at the end of a Council of Ministers on November 2, 2022 in Paris © Thomas SAMSON / AFP/Archives

This "Madame Propre" side of French sport can also be annoying.

As well as his "all in control" style.

"It's the + Excel + culture of Macronist ministers", comments an old school socialist.

"AOC is: + before it was good but now it's me +", says an elected official who practices it in a meeting.

"She should stop the micro-management", slips a member close to the organizing committee of the Olympics.

“She has a lot of ambition”, sums up an elected official.

"She's everywhere, she's going to burn herself", worries almost another.

© 2023 AFP