The deterioration of relations between the French Federation and the National Rugby League has reached a plateau today.
And the world of the oval offers itself a crisis of which it has the secret.
In a press release published on Thursday, the LNR announces that it will attack the other governing body at the administrative court, with a summary appeal.
In question, a deep disagreement on the autumn calendar, which will deprive of their clubs the players selected for the French team, while the health crisis has hit hard professional French rugby.
The last attempt at conciliation last Monday between the two parties therefore did not lead to anything constructive.
The dispute concerns the next dates of the matches of the France team.
Following the extension of the international window approved by World Rugby (of which Bernard Laporte, the president of the FFR is the vice-president), at the end of July, the FFR has in the process made official, for Fabien Galthié and his workforce, six meetings from October 24 to December 6, i.e. a period of seven weeks including six duplicates with the Top 14 calendar.
The League wants five games no more
While the agreement between the two bodies initially provided for only three international meetings, the League (supported from the start by the Top 14 clubs) for its part requested a five-week schedule for as many matches.
At the start of the week, the federation proposed "to cap, in agreement with the coach, the selection of French internationals to five match sheets" and to release the whole group on the weekend without an international match (November 7 to 8 ), which corresponds to the 8th day of the Top 14. Insufficient for the NRL which stands on its positions.
Discussions could have continued on Tuesday, except that in the meantime, Bernard Laporte and Serge Simon, his vice-president at the FFR, were taken into custody by the Brigade for the repression of economic crime (BRDE).
The next election for the presidency of the FFR will take place on October 3.
Laporte will run for a second term there.
The Blues program this fall
October 24: France - Wales (friendly match)
October 31: France - Ireland (last day of the Six Nations Tournament 2020)
November 15: France-Fidji (Autumn Cup)
November 22: Scotland-France (Autumn Cup)
November 28: France - Italy (Autumn Cup)