“I knew too much…” The title of his third book (359 pages, Solar edition, 18.90 euros) sounds like an epitaph.
Mourad Boudjellal is alive and well, however.
And even spicy.
If he settles his accounts in his new opus which appears this Thursday, the former president of RC Toulon seeks above all to engrave on a parchment the last chapter of a rugby page stretching over two seven-year terms and to scribble the first words of the next one devoted to the round ball.
Mounted in Paris to promote his work, the candidate for the resumption of OM returned with his usual bite and his sharp gaze on the turbulent news of these two sports which he tries to be a link.
A BOOK TO SAY GOODBYE
Why did you write this book?
MOURAD BOUDJELLAL.
I had the impression of having left like a thief of the Toulon Rugby club.
They said a lot of bad things behind my back.
I wanted to explain what happened with the greatest possible sincerity and say goodbye to people, because I couldn't do it.
It was important to me.
On February 11, between 2 p.m. and 2:05 p.m., I disappeared in five minutes, taking two garbage bags.
I wanted to leave but not like this.
In particular, you reveal the generalized cheating in Top 14 on the salary cap (capping of the payroll) ...
Yes.
We have seen it all.
Tax havens with arrangements to pay players… There is even a regulation that has been made to measure for a club president.
When image rights are paid by a company that is not one of the club's partners, but works around it, it is not in the salary cap.
It's easy.
You also played with numbers and writings ...
Yes, I did some optimization.
When necessary I stretched the envelope of the salary cap over three years for example.
This allowed me to go over the cap the first year and then distribute.
I had also set up a system of bonuses which were not part of the salary.
COVID-19, NOT SO BAD FOR FINANCES
/ LP / Olivier Corsan
Will the Top 14 clubs recover from the crisis linked to the pandemic?
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Be careful, we said a lot of nonsense.
In the 2019-2020 season, confinement saved the Top 14 clubs a lot of money. In March, when everything stopped, the ticketing and the partnership were already complete.
Then, we no longer had charges and the payroll was largely covered by partial unemployment.
For example, the Toulon budget has been improved by 1 million euros.
For the current season, it will probably be a little more difficult.
Do not games behind closed doors lose a lot of money?
Maybe, but if the clubs are smart, the Covid-19 is a wonderful opportunity for them.
First, it creates a link because there is a lack on the part of the public and partners.
State aid will offset part of the deficit but above all, we will lower the salaries of players.
And this will remain in effect when the situation returns to normal.
The only clubs that could be in danger are those like La Rochelle or Bordeaux-Bègles, based on a real economy and not on sponsorship.
But we won't let them down.
Stade Rochelais, for example, represents such an economy in its region, in its city, that the communities will inevitably help it.
BLUE WORLD CHAMPIONS IN POWER
/ LP / Olivier Corsan
What does the XV of France inspire you, which plays in the final of the Autumn Nations Cup against England on Sunday?
We have the right technician, Fabien Galthié.
Bernard Laporte (the president of the French Federation) knew how to surround him in a remarkable way, which I had not been able to do in Toulon.
And then they both have an incredible chance: there is an exceptional generation of players.
The coach's problem will simply be to choose among all these players who will be world champions.
Because they will be for sure.
What makes you say that ?
There is such competition!
The holders are pushed to the buttocks.
Behind each of them there are two or three young people of the same level ready to take their place.
They will have to fight if they want to compete in the World Cup in 2023. Watch out for the first one who takes a wrong step… There are positions where we can change men without any consequences.
It never happened.
It's incredible.
In addition, the World Cup will take place in France.
We don't have the right to lose it.
With two years of maturity, this team, I am telling you, it will not win the World Cup, it will fly over it.
Today, all over the world, they are hitting each other.
They say to themselves: what is this tornado happening?
Is there a danger?
Yeah, if guys don't like each other.
We will have to manage the competition.
It's complicated and it can create a deleterious atmosphere.
But Fabien Galthié is very well surrounded.
The staff are aware of this.
Can the war between the Federation and the National League be prejudicial to the Blues?
It exists and we must be wary of it.
If this split between club rugby on the one hand, the FFR and World rugby on the other, continues, this will lead to the creation of a world club league.
There is a danger for the national teams.
Today, in our system, the League is more powerful financially than the Federation, its supervisory authority.
These are not empty words.
People are thinking about this.
Our business leaders at the head of the clubs are not morons.
World rugby will have to compose and make sure that the clubs want to stay with it.
Because if there is a private League, the players will no longer be released.
If I were still president, I would go in this direction without hesitation for a second.
AND NOW FOOT, OM AND ZIDANE
/ LP / Olivier Corsan
Do you still think you can take over OM?
Today, I know that I will go to soccer.
And OM will be sold, that's for sure.
I do not see how Frank McCourt (
Editor's note: the owner of the club
) can get by.
He's going to have to sell or bring someone in.
I hope that it will be Mohamed Ayachi Ajroudi (
Editor's note: Franco-Tunisian investor well established in Saudi Arabia
) and that our project will be selected.
Why did you target Marseille?
Because now I have learned to have a bit of an appetite.
In Marseille, there is also a societal challenge.
It is the city that has achieved what France missed with part of its youth.
In Marseille, there are people from all communities and they are Marseille above all.
At the national level, this is much less true.
Often, young people do not feel French.
What would be your first decision as president of OM?
The first thing is to go to bed and sleep in front of Zidane's door (
Editor's note: Real Madrid coach
).
I'll do anything to convince him to come.
Maybe I could wear him… Unless he gives me a head butt (laughs).
But anyway, we must try to bring these two stories together: Marseille and Zidane.
An OM president must try.
Are you not worried that the financial bubble linked to Ligue 1's TV rights will explode with Mediapro's procrastination?
For me, there was a real management error.
It's amazing that there isn't a non-payer release clause after the first unpaid installment.
The contract would then be broken, Mediapro would lose its rights and would still have to pay.
Otherwise, I don't know if we can really speak of a bubble.
Football is special.
Today, we watch a film, a series, a program when we want to.
Sport is the only show where the producer decides when it is going to be consumed.
Because it's difficult, with alerts, social networks, to see it offline without knowing the score.
This is why it is of value.
Tomorrow, new actors are going to appear like Netflix, for example, because there are things to tell.
Football will undoubtedly be worth even more expensive but I do not know on which medium we will watch it.
