Bernard Laporte rules out resigning but is ready to step back from the presidency of the French Rugby Federation (FFR).

"We will say that it is a first awareness. Now, the withdrawal, we have to understand exactly what it means, it is not a notion that is provided for by the texts and by the statutes, so we have to understand what guarantees it comes with", reacted, Tuesday, December 20, the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.

The representative of the government will have the opportunity to ask her questions directly to the man who was sentenced last week to a two-year suspended prison sentence.

A meeting is scheduled for Thursday and the former director general of the French Tennis Federation should discuss in detail Bernard Laporte's project to temporarily appoint a president and delegate to replace him.

🔴🗣 "His withdrawal is accompanied by what guarantees? The situation prevents him from remaining president"@AOC1978 on the future of Bernard Laporte at the head of @FranceRugby.

#Les4V pic.twitter.com/Rv5SeB2UBC

— Telematin (@telematin) December 20, 2022

Bernard Laporte relies on Article 13 of the FFR's internal regulations, which provides that a vice-president can intervene "in place of the president whenever the latter is prevented or authorized to do so".

A vague wording that does not specify the nature of the impediment.

The Federal Bureau of the FFR, which met on Monday, is also going in this direction.

He explained in a press release that he agreed with the opinion of the Federal Committee of Ethics and Deontology of French Rugby, which, in a letter of injunction, requests the withdrawal of the president of the FFR "until to a final penal decision".

A press release which takes care to specify that "in its effects, Bernard Laporte remains president of the French Rugby Federation".

Every word weighs in this very cumbersome file for the Minister of Sports less than ten months before the launch of the Rugby World Cup organized in France.

Unable to put the president of the FFR at the door, she has called, since her conviction at first instance on December 13, for "a new democratic time" which would allow French rugby "to start again on sufficiently sound and solid bases".

Bernard Laporte proclaims his innocence

This new phase cannot begin without prior elections and the appointment of a new office, a slow process that does not fit with the desire for rapid renewal expressed by Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.

And it is also out of the question for her to wait for the decision on appeal and to accept that Bernard Laporte remains until then a “president in withdrawal”.

Called to resign by the federal opposition and certain personalities from the world of rugby, Bernard Laporte does not, for the moment, show the slightest desire to leave his presidential chair.

Found guilty of five of the six offenses for which he was prosecuted, including those of passive bribery and influence peddling, he challenges the facts and the court decision.

"They have the right to say what they want, I'm sure I'm innocent," said in the columns of the Sunday newspaper the 58-year-old leader, who confided his surprise at the announcement of the verdict.

"Knowing that I did nothing, that I did not participate in any pact of corruption, I am appealing."

After having repeatedly denounced the judicial “relentlessness” towards him, Bernard Laporte now points to the lack of logic in the decision rendered.

"I refused a five-year contract at 1.12 million euros per year in Montpellier, chaired by Mohed Altrad, to be the volunteer president of the FFR. They then accused me of being corrupt, for having received 150 000 euros from the same person. It's an inconsistency," he told the JDD.

In office since the end of 2016, Bernard Laporte seems confident of being able to complete the four-year presidential term for which he was re-elected in 2020. And there is no doubt that this former high-level player and coach, who also served as secretary of State in charge of Sports for 18 months, will fight to the end to defend its interests.

With AFP

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