Bernard Laporte's proposal to withdraw from the presidency of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) after his court conviction is "a first awareness", but raises several questions, said Tuesday the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudea-Castera.
Sentenced on Tuesday, December 13 to two years in prison suspended for corruption and increasingly isolated, Bernard Laporte agreed Monday evening to "withdraw" from his duties as president of the FFR pending his appeal trial, but not to resign.
He also proposed his replacement by a provisional president-delegate.
“We will say that it is a first awareness.
Now, withdrawal, we have to understand exactly what that means, it is not a concept that is provided for by the texts and by the statutes, so we have to understand what guarantees they are 'accompany,' said the Minister of Sports at the microphone of France 2.
An interview between Oudéa-Castéra and Laporte scheduled for Thursday
Appointing a delegate president "again raises a number of questions, duration, legitimacy, scope, legal validity and all of this must be looked at", continued Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who is to receive Bernard Laporte on Thursday.
The minister indicated that she would first, this Tuesday afternoon, meet with the president of the ethics committee of the FFR, who had requested the withdrawal of Bernard Laporte.
Less than nine months from the 2023 World Cup organized in France (September 8 - October 28), "the situation prevents him from being the current president of this federation", added the minister.
Having appealed the decision of the Paris Criminal Court, his suspended prison sentence, as well as the ban on exercising the activity of president of the FFR for a period of two years, are not immediately enforceable.
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Bernard Laporte
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