• The trial of Bernard Laporte opened last week in Paris for suspicions of favoritism involving in particular the multi-billionaire businessman Mohed Altrad, main financier of the XV of France.

  • This Tuesday, the president of the French Rugby Federation and that of the Montpellier club were heard.

    Their explanations, sometimes contradicted by the elements of the file, did not always convince.

At the 32nd chamber of the Paris Criminal Court,

Bottle of water in hand, Bernard Laporte takes a break in the entrance hall of the Paris court on Tuesday.

The day after a six-hour river hearing, the president of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) has just spent a little more than two more at the helm of room 2.12.

Not easy in the face of the always biting questions of the president, quick to put him in front of his contradictions.

He got away with it as best he could, faithful to his line of defense, denying any intervention in favor of the president of Montpellier Mohed Altrad.

The hearing of the latter, co-accused in this trial, then occupied the rest of the afternoon.

After the questions around the postponement of a Montpellier match against Racing, the FFR's endorsement of Mohel Altrad's stake in the English club Gloucester and his intervention (or not) to reduce a penalty of the League affecting the club of the businessman, this day had as its central theme the sponsorship contracts for the jersey of the XV of France.

The heart of what is reproached to the two men by justice.

Two separate contracts

It is a question here of two very distinct contracts, signed between the FFR and Mohed Altrad at the beginning of 2017 and the beginning of 2018. The first concerned the financing of France's candidacy file for the organization of the 2023 World Cup, in exchange for the display of the name (in small) under the slogan "France 2023" on the jersey of the Blues.

We are in February 2017, and the FFR is on the run.

The deadline for submitting applications is June 1.

By President Laporte's own admission, Ireland and South Africa were already at that time “more involved in lobbying than closing their file”.

He lacks money, and does not want to dip into the Fed's coffers.

He then instructs Claude Atcher, boss of the candidacy via his company Score XV, to find partners.

Who handled the negotiations, and how did Altrad win?

Bernard Laporte's answers do not seem to convince President Rose-Marie Hunault, who regularly refers him to the statements of witnesses heard during the investigation - and sometimes to his own statements, such as when he assures that Claude Atcher led the negotiations and fixed the price, whereas he had said before that it was Serge Simon.

A meeting ?

What meeting?

But this is not the most problematic.

Laporte says that a meeting took place on February 3 in England in the presence of the historical partners of the Federation (Societe Generale, GMF, BMW, Orange), to explain this idea to them and ask who would be on board.

"It quickly became apparent that no one would go", supports the former coach, who then contacts Altrad to offer him.

Except that the partners apparently didn't attend the same meeting.

“In exchanges of emails with Serge Simon, they all complain of having discovered in March in the press that Altrad was going to recover the partnership”, points out the prosecutor.

“They were at the meeting.

I was there too.

It was Claude Atcher who led it, ”retorts Bernard Laporte.

"They assure that Atcher never spoke of a partnership," reports the prosecutor.

And even less presence on the jersey.

In April, they were also surprised in a letter addressed to the Fed of the arrival of a new actor "without prior consultation".

Then comes the bottom of the story, this contract of 1.5 million euros excluding taxes.

Laporte and Altrad would have agreed between two doors without further negotiation, according to the prosecution.

“Altrad says that it was me who spoke about this price, but not at all”, asserts the boss of the Fed.

For his part, Claude Atcher said during his hearing that Altrad had offered this price, and that he had then asked a firm for an analysis to find out if it was fair.

“Does this analysis exist?

I didn't see it in the file,” noted the president.

A question that will remain unanswered.


In the end, the contract was signed on March 7, three weeks after the deal at 180,000 euros for four Laporte seminars at AIA (Altrad Investment Authority).

Coincidence?

“I have a contract yes, but this company wants to give money to the FFR.

And it's the only one.

If there were still two, and I had said "no we take Altrad", I would understand that someone blames me for something.

There, it was the only one, ”replies Bernard Laporte. 

A few months later, new negotiations.

We are no longer talking about a small display in the context of the organization of the World Cup, but of the main jersey sponsorship of the Blues for the period 2018-2023.

The FFR appoints an agency which estimates the starting price at 9.9 million euros per year.

At a time when the Blues chained defeats, it is expensive to pay.

Too much, for the historical partners, who do not move.

“One day, Serge [Simon] and Claude [Atcher] call me to tell me that AIA is going to make a proposal for 5.4 million euros.

I say no, it's not enough, we have to redefine a price and submit it again to our partners,” comments Laporte.

- " When ?

asks the president.

- “End of July, beginning of August.

»

- “I have a problem Mr. Laporte, the file does not say that at all.

»

The president then quotes an email dated August 10, in which Claude Atcher explains to Mohed Altrad "the counterparties in terms of visibility as a partner of the FFR".

The president of the MHR welcomes his side of the "agreement in principle" found.

Understood, the name that will appear on the chest of the players of the XV of France is already no longer a subject.

“I am against this email.

The federal office must agree, and I said no,” Laporte then got carried away.

“But you are in copy!

“replies the president.

Before raising the killer detail: “In September, Mr. Altrad asked, after consulting his lawyers, for there to be a competition procedure.

Do you think it was up to him to take care of it?

she asks.

Bernard Laporte then pronounces a sentence that he repeated many times this Tuesday:

“I'm not in charge of these negotiations, it's Serge [Simon].

»

Finally, the call for tenders will be published on October 31, 2017 on the FFR website, for a deadline for submitting applications on November 16.

Just for the facade?

Did Mohed Altrad benefit from "privileged information" to win it, as the president asks, putting his finger on a disturbing element to say the least: The boss of the FFR had called on Me Bayon, who specializes in calls for tenders, to organize the procedure... Lawyer whom he then himself advised Altrad when the latter asked him if he did not know someone who could guide him in this case.

Ubuesque.

In any case, it is indeed Altrad who will sign with the FFR on January 8, 2018. “We finally obtained 6.8 million fixed euros, plus bonuses.

For example this year with the Grand Slam [carried out by the France team], that's 8.3 million euros.

It seems to me that it is a good price, ”says Laporte.

A point supported by the defence, who also insisted on the fact that there seemed to be confusion in the press and among the partners between the story of the partner sponsor for the organization of the World Cup and that of the jersey sponsor.

“I am given divine powers”

At the end of the day, Mohed Altrad succeeded Bernard Laporte at the helm.

Between the presentation of the atypical career of the businessman born on an unknown date in the desert and the scholarly digressions of the latter, the court had all the trouble in the world to move forward as it wished.

In particular, there was talk of the famous contract signed between AIA and BL Communication in February 2017, broken the following August, when the new president of the FFR had already received his 180,000 euros.

Would Altrad have bought with this contract the future boosts of the leader?

Mystical response from the person concerned: "I am given divine powers to know that Bernard Laporte was going to be elected [the contract had been discussed in the summer of 2016], that matches were going to be canceled because of a desire for a merger between two Top 14 clubs [the Montpellier-Racing meeting], that France was going to organize the World Cup.

No, there is not this imagination, this premeditation.

“The hearing of the Montpellier president, who also assured “that no ethical contraindication” had been formulated by his advisers, continued until very late Tuesday evening.

Unless it's until dawn.

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