Florian Grill, candidate against Bernard Laporte at the FFR.

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Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP

  • Florian Grill, candidate for president of the FFR against Bernard Laporte, defends a governance project of the federation that he considers healthier and more responsible.

  • The former minister's challenger seduced a number of clubs after a tour of France led at a pace despite the Covid-19 crisis.

  • The legal troubles of his opponent give him an undeniable boost to a week before the verdict

Another short week and that will be the end of the tour de France of barbecues, while the candidacy of Florian Grill is just right, while that of Bernard Laporte has taken a serious blow.

Far from the legal problems of the president of the French Rugby Federation, his challenger completes his marathon, which must take him on the road until October 2, the day before the election.

230 days to travel the country to the attic to present his project to amateur rugby, despite the parenthesis of the Covid.

And to introduce himself.

One more week in contact with the Clubs and always so many people to share and discuss.


Thank you Merignac, Brive, Layrac, Soustons, Toulouse and Tarbes for the welcome.


Your support motivates us !!


On October 3, Rugby plays its future @ floriangrill @Ovale_Ensemble pic.twitter.com/OoFo3jNpQp

- Jean-Marc LHERMET (@JM_Lhermet) September 20, 2020

The business manager, former second line guy of the PUC and president of the Ile-de-France League, took a long time to convince himself that he was the man for the job, rather than a Lièvremont or a Blanco who have ultimately preferred to stay in the background.

He took a little time to return the blows, too, he who likes to use the words of Pierre Camou, the former president of the FFR: "To say bad things about rugby people is to hurt rugby" .

But he ended up doing it, convinced that time was on the side of Bernard Laporte:

“It is not for nothing that he refused to postpone the elections.

He preferred to conduct a lightning campaign hiding the dust on the carpet.

But every time we saw people, we convinced them.

It will be very tight, no offense to all the means deployed against us and the promises multiplied everywhere ”.

Interview.

Florian Grill, are you known a little more than your mother today?

After a year of touring the clubs of France, I imagine, yes (smile).

With Ovale ensemble, we wanted to do things in the right order, the program before the candidate.

I never believed in the providential man.

This attack by Bernard Laporte was very inappropriate.

He just forgot what you learn in any rugby school, which is respect.

Until the end, he refused to participate in the debate proposed to him by all the major radio stations, against democratic evidence itself.

It's a way of continuing to act as if I didn't exist, which acts.

Paradoxically, he did a lot for my notoriety the day he said that only my mother knew me.

Blanco, Skrela, Lhermet… How do you respond to those who tell you that your list smells of reheated?

In any organization, the most important thing is not the profile of the individuals, it is knowing how to put the right people in the right places.

Me, I think that if I have Jean-Marc Lhermet to take care of the teams of France and the high level, I can hardly do better.

If I have Jean-Claude Skrela to spread the culture of the seven in the amateur world, it's nickel.

And if for international partnerships, I am lucky to have a guy who has global notoriety than Serge Blanco, because abroad, there are Lomu and Blanco, then I am the king petrol.

We have a reinforced concrete team, which is 90% rejuvenated and renewed, with 20 club presidents who know the daily life of licensees.

Bernard Laporte heard about amateur rugby, I lived it for 20 years.

Do you think that the custody of Bernard Laporte is likely to change the results of the elections?

I do not wish to comment.

I remain focused on the problems of clubs on a daily basis with our project to revive licensees, help clubs and promote volunteers.

A survey from the

Midi Olympique

newspaper

gives you the loser at the start of the month.

Still think you can turn the tide?

We have our own field surveys which do not say the same thing.

In our scores, we are ahead.

The survey you are talking about was on a statistical sample which is very low, barely 15% of clubs, while we have an estimate of 90% of clubs.

There are also undecided people who are afraid of possible reprisals if they come out in our favor.

That said, I am very confident about the confidentiality of electronic voting, even if the Federation changed the rules of the game at the last moment for registration on the voting platform.

With us, it was the start of the fight to ensure that all friendly clubs complete the procedure on time.

56.9% + 43.1% + 5.5% = 105.5% (Laporte-Grill survey, in '' Midol '') pic.twitter.com/u433MqCq8J

- Adrien Pécout (@AWG_P) September 14, 2020

Why do you consider Bernard Laporte's record disappointing?

At the origin of my candidacy, there is the feeling that there is a real crisis in rugby which is evidenced by figures.

26% fewer license holders in rugby schools in three years.

65% more payroll at the Fed, deficits over the entire mandate of the outgoing team.

These are very disturbing signals.

And then there are comments that a Federation president should not make.

Bernard Laporte is supposed to be the guarantor of the institution and of the people who made the history of French rugby.

Hanging himself as he did to Boniface, Skrela, or Benazzi, big names in the XV of France, this is not the image I have of my sport.

I do not dispute Laporte to have rugby skills.

But the quality of the execution is disastrous.

Like how to behave with essential partners like the NRL.

Would you have acted differently with the NRL on the fall tests?

When Laporte was elected four years ago, he said roughly that he wanted to knock out League president Paul Goze.

How do you want to work in a climate of trust after that?

We must not arrive with diktats but with a principle of listening.

On the fall tour, the League's proposal to stick to five games was very reasonable, we could have avoided the war caused by the Federation.

Do you know a lot of people who negotiate with guns to their heads?

Not me.

There is a real problem of method.

It is as if Bernard Laporte needed the conflict to move forward.

We will never be world champions if we do not calm relations with the NRL.

Were you surprised that Fabien Galthié put his position in the balance if ever Bernard Laporte had to bow?

I will simply answer that I recognize the real sporting qualities of Fabien Galthié, but that the France team should not be a politicized subject.

The coach is normally bound to a duty of reserve as an employee of the Federation, even if I think, on reading, that we have a little overinterpreted his words.

In the exclusive interview delivered to @midi_olympique, France XV coach Fabien Galthié reveals that if Bernard Laporte were to lose the FFR elections, he could well resign from his duties.

👇https: //t.co/lNpHa2O9Z2

- RUGBYRAMA (@RugbyramaFR) September 12, 2020

Will you work with him if you are elected?

This is always what was planned.

I am not Laporte, who depending on whether you supported Pierre, Paul or Jacques, you are either a plague sufferer or someone acceptable.

When the president of the FFR, on a subject as symbolic as the France team, finds a way to play politics, because we know where this intervention of the coach comes from, it is not part of my job design.

Do you regret the management of the France team on the part of the Federation, between the ouster of Guy Novès and the placing under supervision of Jacques Brunel?

It illustrates the mind-blowing violence of the management of the Laporte team.

What rational business manager would fire a guy by announcing his departure in the press, especially when this guy represents what he represented in rugby, after a so-called audit that did not exist?

Already it is ultra steal, but in addition, it is a management fault, it costs an arm.

Then, Jacques Brunel is brought in to impose Galthié on top of him, all with Serge Simon in the background which we wonder if he is not an alternate coach.

It is undeniable that there has been the best in recent months on the results, but in view of the detestable relations between the FFR and the LNR, the state of grace is over for Fabien Galthié.

You mention the cost of the dismissal of Guy Novès and his staff [estimated at several million euros nldr], and this joins your concerns about the financial health of the FFR.

Do you think the Federation is on the way to ruin on this front?

We have a governance that has succeeded in a deficit Grand Slam, since the FFR remains on four years of operating deficit.

The last budget voted in July is a telling example.

The management committee approved a forecast loss of more than 5 million euros with a France-Ireland planned in front of 80,000 spectators at the Stade de France!

It was totally unrealistic with the Covid epidemic.

It's called a budget voted on helium, and it has just been finally corrected, with losses that will not be far from 14 million euros at the end of the year.

So Bernard Laporte seeks to bring an investment fund into the capital of the VI nations to find money, but an investment fund, he seeks profitability.

The feeling that gives me is a permanent headlong rush to finance increasingly insane spending.

At one point, we'll have to pay the painful, and the house of cards is already falling apart.

Guy Novès ignites for Florian Grill, rival of Bernard Laporte at the FFR via @ 20minutesSport https://t.co/FteKNiXvxN

- 20 Minutes Sport (@ 20minutesSport) January 30, 2020

You still voted for the exceptional aid plan of 35 million euros, right?

The 35 million, we voted for them and we will not go back on it because amateur rugby needs it.

But for that, the team in place emptied the boxes and used part of the insurance fund which is normally used for seriously injured people.

We are talking about 15 million withdrawn, anyway, especially to ensure the standard of living of a Federation which has hired 100 full-time people without its scope having changed since 2016.

How to raise the bar in terms of revenue?

In addition to the 35 million, we want to raise 16 million euros per year from companies via CSR (Social and Environmental Responsibility) programs to help clubs that lead interesting initiatives.

Take the restos du cœur, which have 2,000 establishments in France, they raise 95 million euros per year.

Of course, the FFR is not an association, but we have 1900 amateur clubs, and a rugby club is much more than matches and training.

He helps children to become adults, he creates bonds between people.

With the Covid, there is another model to be invented than the strictly advertising model, where we put the name of the sponsor on the jersey and it's over.

Companies are looking for meaning in their partnerships, and we want to offer them meaning.

How to stop the fall in the number of redundants?

One of the reasons parents don't put their kids in rugby schools is their bad image.

There are a lot of parents who are scared because they think that top 14 rugby is the same as in rugby schools.

This prejudice must be dismantled.

In Ile-de-France, we changed the rules when we saw that 80% of the time for actions were rucks and mauls.

With the touch of two seconds, we go to a rugby with more passes, more interesting for kids.

We must also reinvest in schools.

The Fédé is absolutely null on this whereas there are 13 million schoolchildren to seduce.

We have five-a-side, no tackle, which is a fabulous tool.

You can play it in the playground, in a gymnasium, and it's totally mixed.

I dream that we see rugby everywhere in schools.

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