Rugby: “In three years, no one will talk about her anymore”, Bernard Laporte sharply tackles Amélie Oudéa-Castéra

The skirmish between Bernard Laporte and Amélie Oudéa-Castéra continues... Bernard Laporte's return to business in Montpellier has caused some teeth to grind. Particularly those of the Minister of Sports. Sunday, she was the guest of Marion Bartoli’s show on RMC and she declared: “Was Montpellier the best choice? I am not sure. To the extent that there are, in his links with Altrad, elements which were highlighted by the judge with facts of corruption in their relationship with both of them.

Amélie Oudéa-Castéra nevertheless argued that “the first instance judgment does not prohibit him from holding the position of sports director in a club. He likes rugby. He wants to try to help Montpellier.” The MHR is owned by businessman Mohed Altrad, who has murky ties with the former president of the FFR. On December 13, 2022, both were in fact found guilty, at first instance, of having entered into a “corruption pact” (active corruption, influence peddling and abuse of corporate assets), particularly regarding the conditions of attribution of sponsorship of the French XV jersey by the company Altrad (still in place). The two men appealed this first judgment and will be judged on appeal in 2024.

Last November, Laporte had already lit a first fuse on RMC, pointing the finger at the new management team of the FFR led by Florian Grill regarding the failure of the Blues during the last World Cup, beaten in the quarter-finals by future champion South Africa. “If the people in place had done the job, we should have been world champions,” said the former coach of the French XV. “We have to weigh, at a given moment, we must not only criticize. (…) We had a golden opportunity to be world champions, but some people ruined everything.”

Response from the Minister of Sports to these attacks: “He suggests that rugby matches are won and decided before in the committees, regretted the minister. It’s not my idea of ​​sport.” And added: “It is essential to have an influence at the heart of global and European sports bodies. I can recall that it was under his presidency that the French presence declined. We were largely absent in the early stages of the Nations Cup file when we had to watch out for the problems of duplicates with the Top 14. We could have weighed or influenced the course of things. Florian Grill mobilized enormously to rebuild lots of bonds of trust which had been damaged during these months of 2022.

Invited this Thursday to a meeting with the readers of Midi Libre, Bernard Laporte did not mince his words against “AOC”. “When I hear the minister say that with me, we went downhill… Before I arrived, we were nothing,” he says. I became vice-president of Six Nations, of the international federation and overnight, we are nothing.” And the former Secretary of State for Sports under Nicolas Sarkozy vituperated, in his acerbic style: “I was there before her (in this position). In three years, no one will talk about her anymore, I know the story (Laughs). They forget that they are passing through. Apparently she's ambitious. She would see herself as President of the Republic. I won’t vote for her, I’ll tell you that straight away (Laughs).” The group lives well, as they say in sport...