“Politics is the least of my worries at the moment”: Florian Grill talks about summer affairs, the elections, his project and the future

Florian Grill, current president of the French Rugby Federation, is running for re-election on October 19 and will be up against Didier Codorniou. Without beating around the bush, the Montpellier leader of Ovale Ensemble looks back on the summer's events, the controversies, the role of the Federation and the future.

Despite the events of the summer, you are increasing your trips to the field.

I didn't wait for the campaign to go to the field. I have been elected federally for seven years and I have been going to meet the clubs. What I see confirms what I already knew.

That is to say?

Amateur rugby is in a bad way. We need to launch a Marshall Plan on facilities. What we did, since we invested 20 million to have women's changing rooms, expand club houses, rugby schools, handrails. Sometimes, the facilities date back to the 70s.

We were right to put eight additional French championship titles for territorial rugby. Because what is disappearing is rugby in villages and medium-sized towns. It needs to be revived.

In which other sectors do you intervene?

There is an emergency in schools. Rugby has disappeared a lot. We gave away 35,000 balls at the start of the school year. We also found a new insurance for French rugby, even more interesting. We allowed 60,000 volunteers to benefit from the Federation's civil liability for free.

The project is colossal. We are only at the beginning of the work.

Ovale Ensemble operated with eleven elected representatives out of forty on the steering committee, and with three leagues out of eighteen. The transmission belts over the first year were not perfect. The objective of this campaign is to win strongly to have real democratic legitimacy, then to continue with the regional leagues. If we want to reform rugby, and we have to do it, to straighten out rugby from the ground up, it is essential that we have aligned regional leagues, that we have elected representatives at the Federations.

“We have been on all subjects 24/7”

There was a lot of talk about rugby sevens during the Olympic Games. You also mentioned the five-a-side game in schools… But what about fifteen ?

The XV is our jewel, it is of course a priority. Amateur rugby is the one that is suffering the most. I believe that we have enchanted rugby with a peaceful World Cup, while we were promised a bloody competition, even if the result is not what we hoped for. And we must continue to do so with our French teams. And we have nothing to be ashamed of after a year in office. We made the right decisions. Second place in the Tournament, we can be satisfied with that.

Beyond the seven that did well, we have results from the leading teams like the Bleues who finished 2nd in the Tournament, who broke records with 28,000 people in Chaban-Delmas. Same for the U20 women, the U20 boys.

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Your opponents accuse the Federation of reacting more than it acts, particularly concerning the events of the summer.

We were on all subjects 24/7. We handled the Jaminet case very quickly. The RCT and the player accepted the sanction (6-month suspension). I have no comment on this.

About Mendoza, with Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou. It just so happened that we were scheduled to come to the scene at that time. We really managed. The Federation managed to prevent the two players, who were prejudged by their guilt or innocence, from going to prison by paying the costs in advance. We would have added drama to drama.

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And concerning the disappearance of Medhi Narjissi ?

I set up a crisis unit, operating 24/7. From the first day, we sent someone to accompany the family on site. I couldn't be on the plane, I had 30 minors to repatriate, the link with the consulate, the embassy, ​​the ministry, the psychological unit to set up, the link with the professional clubs. We didn't stop. Afterwards, I can't say anything in the face of a family's pain. I made a mistake in believing that the family didn't want to see me because I was the one who had announced the tragedy to the Narjissi family, considering that no one else should have announced it to them. I made a mistake and I explained it.

I think we are fighting every day on this subject so that these tragedies do not call into question what rugby does on a daily basis.

“C’est pas le Président qui a mis mon fils à l’eau, mais c’est lui le responsable du staff. C’est lui qui s’est trompé de ne pas nous avoir accompagnés en Afrique du Sud. Ses excuses, on les entend mais on ne les accepte pas.”

Jalil Narjissi au sujet de Florian Grill #CLHebdo pic.twitter.com/94MqSSSen2

— C l’hebdo (@clhebdo5) September 14, 2024

Isn't it complicated to promote rugby in this period ?

I still say that if there was more rugby in society, society would be better off. The volunteers are doing a phenomenal job. The work of the Federation to recover is enormous. We discovered that we had a huge financial challenge, since the losses we were left with are abysmal. We have an equally important organizational challenge. As for the social aspect, we have to face head on the addiction problems that we are facing, like the whole of society. The same goes for sexual and racist violence. We were also the first to talk to the ministry about cocaine and alcohol. I believe that we have a responsibility as men and women and not just a sporting one.

“I don't want to say bad things about rugby people because it hurts rugby”

The message, has it not lost credibility and legitimacy ?

It is obvious that the events of the summer have not done rugby's image any good. I am not going to say otherwise. I am fighting so that things are put into perspective. Of course I would have preferred that we talk about something other than a kid who disappears. We are all upset. We are just trying, on these subjects, like the others, to manage with courage and dignity. Medhi's memory requires that we tell the truth. The honour of the Federation is also at stake, even if it is secondary compared to the family's pain.

Will the Federation sanction the supervisors present in South Africa ?

I didn't wait for the investigation to say that there were mistakes. The police investigation is taking over, will allow us to provide the details of the sanctions because it will hear even more widely than we did. Ours allowed us to clarify individual and/or collective responsibilities. The investigation is tough. For everyone. We are making ourselves available to the justice system to collaborate with it in complete transparency.

For the elections, these cases do not work in your favor…

Frankly, politics is the least of my worries. At the time of the Medhi affair, I considered resigning. It upset me. I didn't do it, because I felt that my responsibility was to guarantee transparency, as hard as that may be. The political consequences are not my subject. We'll see. The clubs will decide. I am responsibly doing the work for which I was elected fifteen months ago. I am trying to do it with dignity. We have a project. The clubs want it or not, I would respect democracy.

The clubs talk to you about it when you are on the field ?

Yes. When we have meetings, I have had about fifty since we started the field/campaign part, knowing that I made 142 trips as president and hundreds more when I was elected. We can talk about everything. I owe them transparency on all events. All club presidents are a bit like me. They know that, unfortunately, an accident can happen, that the criminal liability of managers exists. They are also very sensitive to the fact that, in the insurance file, we have strengthened the coverage for representatives. They are worried about their own responsibility, so they share this sword of Damocles of association leader.

“These general states were founding and necessary”

The general states at the end of August, what did they give ? Some have spoken of “smoke and mirrors” ?

Likewise, political comments don't interest me. There was an urgent need to do them. The general assembly, the definition, is to bring together all the rugby families. That was the case. We held five round tables of six people to set a strategic framework. Everyone agreed on the urgency. I had feedback from the clubs saying that it was very good that the Federation was setting the pace. We freed up the speech. We have about fifty interviews and additional ones that are being done and which will lead to an action plan. It will concern awareness, training. Which was already happening but which we will intensify. And beyond that, there will be a question of sanctions. Financial and sporting. In the professional and amateur world. We will be able to work with the gendarmerie, the French anti-doping agency. There is a whole series of actions that are being put in place and that we are working on.

So these general states were founding, necessary. It was also necessary to prepare the tour of the French men's and women's XV, so we weren't going to wait for the elections to hold a general state. Everyone agreed on the urgency.

I didn't wait for the events of the summer to talk about his problems of action, to put words to the evils, not to bring dust on the carpet.

Didier Codorniou, your opponent for the presidency of the FFR, is the subject of two criminal investigations. What do you think about it ?

In all the campaign meetings that I do, and I didn't do it at the time of Bernard Laporte either, I always talked about my program, my ideas. The rest, everyone's business, doesn't interest me. Rugby is not that. I don't want to say bad things about rugby people because it hurts rugby. That's it.

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