A form of plebiscite! With 11 seats won out of the 12 that were to be filled on the steering committee of the French Rugby Federation, the opposition list Ovale Ensemble, led by Florian Grill, pulled the chestnuts out of the fire of the election organized between Wednesday and Friday.
For the majority in place, led by the vice-president of the FFR Patrick Buisson, it is a slap in the face since only the former captain of the team of France Guilhem Guirado was elected among the 12 candidates proposed. This does not bode well for her before the election of the president of the FFR, scheduled for June 12-14, who will be elected from among the members of the steering committee, where the opposition now has 11 seats out of 40.
And what about the independent candidates Serge Blanco and Jean-Claude Skrela, who had seceded from the opposition? The first finished in 25th place in this election, the second in 19th place.
If confirmed, the current balance of power will make Florian Grill the favourite in this election. If he were to win, the French rugby body would find itself in an unprecedented situation of "cohabitation" with an opposition president at the head of a steering committee mostly acquired by the disciples of former president Bernard Laporte.
The latter had resigned in January, opening a succession crisis, a few weeks after his two-year suspended prison sentence for having forged "a pact of corruption" with the president of Montpellier and shirt sponsor of the XV of France Mohed Altrad.
More information to follow...