Didier Codorniou, candidate for the presidency of the FFR: “I want to re-enchant rugby, I want to make kids dream”

Didier Codorniou est prêt pour les futures élections à venir en octobre. Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

A few weeks before the election of the future president of the French Rugby Federation where he will face Montpellier's Florian Grill on October 19, Didier Codorniou from Narbonne discusses his vision of rugby, his project and the latest affairs affecting the French rugby union.

You are carrying out a series of visits to several amateur clubs in our region. What is the purpose of this??

We are at the heart of the territories. This allows me to have a better knowledge of the amateur world and amateur rugby. It also allows me to see territorial differences, territorial fractures. Some clubs are in great difficulty, others less so. What interested me was to take the pulse of the amateur world, which is the basis of the fundamentals. We had not realized, we had not measured the great fragility. The presidents, the directors, the volunteers are in great suffering. Consequence: there are many questions. Does the Federation respond well to the expectations, the anxieties of the clubs? ? Are the tools made available? ? I was looking forward to being on the ground. I am much more comfortable there, listening. Secondly, the goal is to answer their questions.

What do you mean by: “We had not measured the great fragility” ?

In the rugby environment, there is the advent of professional rugby in the 90s. We remain very enlightened about the Top 14, the Pro D2, the Nationale… Very attractive and which appeal to young people. The base, if we have not neglected it, we have hidden it a little. Today, it is weakened. In every way. It is weakened on the infrastructures, on the young people who play less. An example: I saw in Occitanie in January/February, young people who did not play for seven weekends, eight weekends, almost two months.

For what reasons ?

Either because of the championship which is not at all adapted, or because of the lack of a team which leads to forfeits. All these questions have questioned us and in fact, as an answer, we went on the foundations.

Tell us about this project…

For us, it represents the basis of reflections for the rugby of tomorrow, by thinking together and laying everything out on the table. If we are elected, on the morning of October 20, the idea is to organize over seven weekends territorial meetings on the themes that seem important to us, on mobility problems, health, linked to alcohol, concussions, drugs, on infrastructure, disability, living well together and on territorial fractures. With a participatory method. I am very attached to participatory democracy. And the eighth weekend will be the one for consolidation to write the “blue book” of France over the next 15 years.

The volunteers' workload is huge, but it's not complicated!

Have your recent contacts with the clubs already allowed you to identify the origins of the problems you describe ?

We have avenues of work, for example on the volunteer crisis. One commitment I am making is to define and consolidate the official status of volunteers. This status will have to include acquired experience so that points can be counted towards retirement. Many volunteers are 40, 50 years old… And for some, they have been volunteers for 15 or 20 years. Furthermore, there has been a 12% drop in the number of executives within clubs between 2016 and 2022. They have not been renewed. Consequences: fewer executives, worn-out volunteers, administrative problems – clubs are drowning in paperwork – mobility problems to get to matches… The project is huge, but it's not complicated!

You also talked about infrastructure…

A figure: in France, there are 3,240 sports facilities declared in connection with the discipline of rugby. 2,548 rugby fields, 1,250 mixed. In football, it's 37,000. 20% of these facilities were commissioned after 1995. What I'm telling you is that 80% of these infrastructures are aging. So my team and I want to launch a Marshall Plan.

That is to say?

As Vice-President of the Region, I had several responsibilities. In particular, I worked on the Coastal Plan 21 (*). The first Coastal Plan 21, we raised a billion over four years. And that's 386 million euros over the next three years. By contracting, in particular, with the State. In rugby, we've never done that. The idea is to put in 3 million euros per year, so 12 in total, to allow us to go and meet the National Sports Agency, the communities, the regions, the departments. There are also partners who may be interested in the development of rugby, particularly on the environment, in a CSR approach. We can therefore raise funds with private companies that may be interested in the process. We have started with an amount of 120 million. This corresponds to approximately 300 to 400 infrastructures in the next four years. This is the second: we are going to raise funds and work on the infrastructures. Public and private funds. There are private individuals who, in order to improve their brand image a little on the biosphere and the environment, are ready to invest.

Including in amateur rugby, you think ?

Yes, because we come back to the problem of what I am telling you. If tomorrow there is no more land, there will be no more Antoine Dupont. Infrastructure is crucial. If we do not do that, we cannot develop the 20,000 young people, women's sport, adapted sport, the sport health axes. I wonder if, in recent years, we have asked ourselves the right questions, and if we have analyzed the situation of rugby.

Can we say that amateur rugby is at the heart of your project ?

Indeed, amateur rugby and rugby 15. When we talk about "rugby", there is health rugby, rugby 7, rugby 5, rugby 12, wheelchair rugby, adapted rugby, etc. All these subjects are very serious but the fundamentals are rugby 15. It is the one that will develop the most, which must accommodate everyone, all sizes. The big ones, the thin ones, the small ones can play.

You unveiled your list in July, 38 personalities. We find Guilhem Guiardo in particular but not Serge Blanco or Jean-Claude Skrela, two of your supporters. For what reason??

I consider that they are huge personalities, with international notoriety. I want to use them but not necessarily on my list. On a much more global environment for Serge Blanco, and Jean-Claude Skrela on federal obligations and the development of rugby, women's rugby, rugby 7s. They will be called upon to play a decisive role in the structuring.

With the election approaching, how do you feel in this final stretch, you who declared yourself a candidate only last June ?

When I started, I surprised even my wife! I claim this freedom. I have been thinking about it and preparing for months. But several elements were needed: family council, for starters. This is crucial and it clearly demonstrates my philosophy and my surprising side. I needed the favorable opinion of my wife and children. And then, you have to move very, very quickly, so work on a program, a team, lots of networks. We have referents in all the regions and now we are in the territories. I have to be able to convince. I may be short of time, but I can make up for it because I have a great capacity for work. Will that be enough?? Quite honestly, I am not someone who needs to be in the spotlight. What interests me is to give back what rugby has given me. I have nothing to sell. I am a man of challenges and this is quite a challenge.

“The Federation reacts more than it acts”

Florian Grill, your competitor, has been organizing a Rugby General Assembly for a few days, affected by several cases. You called the initiative “smoke and mirrors”

I confirm this. This is a completely disoriented semantics and it is a way of doing political politicking. There is a famous phrase by Georges Clemenceau, which illustrates well that the outgoing president is trying to extricate himself from all these affairs: “When events overwhelm us, let's pretend to be their organizers”. This sentence inspired me a lot about everything that is happening through the affairs that affect rugby at the moment with a lot of communication that bothers me, that creates tensions.

Florian Grill has lost control according to you ?

The Federation reacts more than it acts. We react when there is a problem, but we are not in action. What we want is to be responsible.

Precisely, Florian Grill's responsibility has been in the news in recent weeks due to several rugby affairs. On the case of Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou, indicted for aggravated rape in Argentina, what is your view ?

I am not going to comment on a case with the legal side, the lawyers… It is much more the consequences. I have done about ten tours. There has always been on tour, a liaison officer, a tour director, a vice-president of the Federation… A liaison officer in contact with the embassy and a good knowledge of the territories where we are going. Argentina, I know, I have been there three times. When you find yourself in these countries – there, it is quite hot, and you have to be careful. But there was reinforced security. For the rest of this case (he pauses). With composure and with authority, you have to punish. These are two players who have tarnished the image of the French Rugby Federation, who have soiled the jersey of the French team. It will be interesting to see the result in fine of the investigation. I say that there must be gradual sanctions based on the investigations and all these incidents. We must not rush before sanctioning.

"Sanction", "players who have soiled the jersey of the French team"… Your words are strong&hellip If you were in charge today, when the legal outcome is not yet known, you would have sanctioned them?

They damaged the brand, they damaged the French team. By their behavior. I use these harsh words because I think that we need to restore authority, order. There have been abuses, for years, in the third half in the management of the French team, which have been kept quiet. We need to tell each other things. It's a fundamental problem, not related to these two players. If we don't have authority, we're not credible. We really need to restore this authority. By telling you this, I understand better the succession of failures at the World Cup level. In the professional world, everything is measured down to the last detail. And the details are important. Things have escaped us during this World Cup on details, beyond the chosen compositions, the injury of Antoine Dupont… These are important subjects to discuss also with the staff, so that the staff is also responsible.

What would be your proposals in this area ?

Rules of trust. But also modules with professionals from the sociological, psychological world, etc. In order to raise awareness among these young people who do not measure everything that could happen. And not necessarily people from the rugby environment. I would see a lot more people who are much more on the psychological side, who can detect.

Should Fabien Galthié and his staff have been sanctioned ?

The French team is not the plaything of a president or a national coach, whatever his fame or intrinsic qualities. It is a whole. And it is collectively that we must manage all these problems. I come back to our slogan, it is: “Re-enchanting rugby”. I want to re-enchant rugby, I want to make kids dream.

Rugby is also affected by the tragedy of the disappearance at sea of ​​Medhi Narjissi in South Africa, during matches with the French under-18 team… The family has harshly criticized Florian Grill. Should he have resigned in your opinion ?

It's a delicate and personal subject. We are overwhelmed by emotion. I think that, regardless of the president, we are not trained for this. We are much more on reflexes. I know what I would have done in relation to my sensitivity. Being in France, I take the car or the plane, and I go to see the family. That's it. Afterwards, it's beyond understanding. There was a tragedy, the world of rugby stops. We are all suffering. These subjects, in my opinion, are too serious to talk about them in the context of the election. I forbid my team and my entourage from discussing these subjects.

Another case concerns Melvyn Jaminet and racist remarks made in a video. The player was sanctioned by the Federation and by his club Toulon. If you were to take on responsibilities, would you be in favor of a return to the French team ?

In the political world, I experienced a similar situation with Georges Frêche, who was attacked and accused of racism. The man is not racist at all, and I supported him. The Jaminet affair is a bit the same thing. He is with friends, he jokes, he has Maghrebian friends, everything is going well with them, they have fun with it. But there you go, he makes a mistake in the application and it starts. And there, indeed, he is racist. I know Jaminet, I met him, and I was afraid that he would do something stupid because the sentence was so quick, severe, heavy. I am ready to review his sentence. This is a situation that deserves discussion with officials of the Federation, the ethics committee. I believe in the school of the second chance and this subject concerns me. The more elements I have, the more I tell myself that he was unfortunately trapped, while the man is not racist.

(*) Action plan for the adaptation of the coastline to climate change and support for the implementation of local strategies for the spatial recomposition of the coastline. I subscribe to read the rest