Bernard Laporte narrowly reelected President of the French Rugby Federation
The re-elected president of the French Rugby Federation, Bernard Laporte.
Reuters / Paul Childs
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
The list led by the former coach (2004-2007) and former Secretary of State for Sports (2007-2009) won the majority of the 40 seats of the new management committee.
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He wanted to "
continue and
transform the test
", it was fair but it was understood: Bernard Laporte was reelected president of the French Rugby Federation (FFR), Saturday in Marcoussis, ahead of by a short head his opponent Florian Grill .
At the end of a stormy campaign, marked by exchanges of courtesies and police custody for Bernard Laporte in an investigation for favoritism, his list received 51.47% of the votes of the elective general assembly, ahead of that of opposition, led by the president of the Ile-de-France regional league (48.53%).
"
To be elected on promises is one thing, to be reelected on a balance sheet is another,
" said the former coach of Toulon and Stade Français after his victory.
“
The clubs were not fooled.
Democracy has spoken.
I will be the president of all clubs.
"
This success of Laporte came to crown his strategy, closer to the clubs during the health crisis then economic: at the end of March, the president of the FFR thus announced an aid of 35 million euros to "
relieve
" the approximately 1,900 member associations.
In 2016, when he beat outgoing president Pierre Camou (2008-2016) and former secretary general Alain Doucet (2001-2016), Laporte left early, beating the pavement more than a year before the vote.
This time he waited until July.
“
With what we've been through, we had to be up to speed with the clubs.
With the recovery plan, it was a lot, a lot of work, a lot a lot, of videoconferences,
”he explained when he announced his candidacy in July.
Stormy countryside
In total, his campaign lasted 40 days for 28 meetings.
Sufficient to convince the majority of voters.
All in a heavy atmosphere with media attacks from both camps.
Laporte's legal woes have therefore not prompted the clubs to turn their backs on him.
Heard by the Economic Crime Repression Brigade (BRDE) and placed in police custody ten days before the election, he is particularly suspected of having favored the Montpellier club by intervening with the appeal committee of
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Rugby / Election to the FFR: Bernard Laporte will he transform his new test?