At the end of a short but very commented soap opera, Gaël Fickou left the Stade Français prematurely to join Racing 92.
This considerable reinforcement for a club fighting for the Brennus Shield was made possible by a decision of the NRL steering committee, justified by the health situation.
Beyond the controversy, this new episode illustrates the lack of readability of French rugby.
French rugby can say thank you to Florentino Perez and Andrea Agnelli. The high profile games around the Super League have eclipsed what should be called “Fickougate”. Reminder of the facts, for those in the background who did not follow: Gaël Fickou, the international center of the Stade Français, officially signed on Monday at Racing 92 in order to end the season there, thus anticipating a move initially planned for this summer. He should play on Saturday night in Toulouse, for a shock from the top of the Top 14 table.
Quietly, before the final sprint, the opulent club of President Lorenzetti was therefore reinforced with one of the best Blues, thanks to a few lines written at the end of a press release published on April 8 by the League (LNR), the first of the Bouscatel presidency: “Given the context of the health crisis which has caused many disruptions in the course of the season, the Management Committee of the LNR has decided on an exceptional basis to open a recruitment period from April 9 to 30 during which each club can recruit a player [medical joker or additional player].
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Players "weakened" by the Covid
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, the NRL gives some details: "We are talking about the context related to Covid, because the uncertainties are more important than in previous years, with cases that can occur overnight, therefore difficult to manage for coaches , and players a little more vulnerable when they had the Covid. The Stade Toulousain, with the very promising Argentinian Santiago Chocobares, is also engulfed in the breach after the serious injury of Sofiane Guitoune.
The idea is virtuous on paper, but not appreciated by all the actors, like Pierre-Henry Broncan, coach of Castres, caustic after his success in Toulouse, last Saturday: "To get the qualification, we will maybe call the Stade Français to see if they want to release us players for free. "Before going on, decidedly in verve:" But, what I'm sure is that Beauden Barrett [the opener of the Blacks] will not arrive next week with us. This one, it is for Pau, who quite simply attracted as medical joker the South African Elton Jantjes, world champion 2019, in order to win the battle for the maintenance engaged against Bayonne.
"This kind of practice will not soften the climate of suspicion", regrets Robins Tchale-Watchou.
The president of Provale, the players' union, draws an example: “Imagine a player who passes to the other side with all the combinations of his former club, and who scores the try or the penalty of winning.
It can give a feeling of betrayal.
Racing coach Laurent Travers confirmed, however, that Fickou would not play the derby against Stade Français on May 1.
Provale "skeptical" about this additional window
Despite everything, Tchale-Watchou says he is "skeptical" about this spring window of change. “This may be an opportunity for players lacking playing time [Picamoles and Jolmes for example,“ tricards ”in Montpellier and Toulon and moved to UBB]. But we are going to attend events that go against the grain of our sport's DNA. In football, basketball, they are used to that. Not us… "
As a privileged witness, it is difficult to find better than the sports agent Pierre Lartigue.
The Pau saw the daddy's rugby of the 90s, with its famous values and its often more or less fictitious jobs at the town hall or at a complacent sponsor, mutate towards professionalism.
“The philosophy has changed, but we are not in the excess of basketball either, ensures the one who started in the profession by taking care of David Aucagne and Nicolas Brusque.
When you look at the Jeep Elite, you may come across players who play at three different clubs in the same season.
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A concern for payroll
As in the NBA, the reduction of the payroll appears however as an increasingly significant concern in Top 14. Thus, still in the case of Fickou, the Stade Français has separated from the best paid player of its workforce, who cost a million euros per season, according to figures released in
L'Equipe
by club owner Hans-Peter Wild.
Decidedly a pioneer, the team of the German billionaire had spent 700,000 euros in 2018, to buy the last year of the international center's contract with the Stade Toulousain, and as much to debauch the second line and former Blue Yoann Maestri.
𝔹𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕧𝕖𝕟𝕦𝕖 𝔾𝕒𝕖̈𝕝 💥💙 @ FickouG #RacingFamily pic.twitter.com/k7pkBdG1dc
- Racing 92 (@ racing92) April 20, 2021
However, even today in pro rugby, most movements take place according to the same scenario, as simple as it is ancestral: a player comes to the end of the contract and signs elsewhere.
"But there is a different philosophy," resumes Pierre Lartigue.
There can be contract buyouts, players leaving during the season, which was very rare until now.
You also have medical jokers, additional players… ”
Increasingly early recruitment
Without forgetting once every four years the jokers World Cup, so that a club amputated of part of its troop goes to draw an ephemeral recruit, very often a foreign international who rolls half on the rim. And then, more recently, the loans of Top 14 players to Pro D2 appeared, with the possibility of recovering the person concerned during a doubloon period (like the full-back Tristan Tedder, straddling this season between Stade Toulousain and Béziers).
Everything is less and less readable for the general public, and more and more calculated upstream.
"The clubs are doing it earlier and earlier," observes the Pau agent.
Today it is systematic.
If you know that such and such a player is coming to the end of the contract, from the previous September onwards, you can offer him to clubs, or even clubs to come to you.
This season, Jonathan Danty (Stade Français), Yann David and Anthony Jelonch (Castres), among others, have had plenty of time to explore the real estate market before joining La Rochelle, Bayonne and Toulouse respectively next summer.
A difficult to read sport
The “exceptional” period decreed by the NRL for this month of April should not survive the Covid.
But it is just one example of the illegibility of pro French rugby, which is increasingly struggling to sell its “values” as the ultimate marketing argument.
Not to mention the calendar full of duplicates, which leads the clubs to question the relevance of paying dearly for French internationals to see them more often on TV with the XV of France than on their lawn.
Wild, always him, calculates thus in L'Equipe
that Fickou cost him 150,000 euros per game this season.
"How are we going to develop our sport while keeping its DNA?
asks Robins Tchale-Watchou.
We will have to ask the right questions quickly.
The concern is that depending on their interests, the different chapels of the oval will not offer the same answers.
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Sport
Covid 19
Coronavirus
Rugby
Top 14
Gaël Fickou
French stadium
Racing 92
Transfer