“Our responsibility as a federation is to have a duty of transparency”: FFR President Florian Grill takes stock in Pézenas

Florian Grill à la rencontre des clubs. Robert Rivière – Robert Rivière, correspondant.

Dans le cadre de la campagne pour l’élection à la présidence de la Fédération française de rugby (FFR), Florian Grill a fait escale à Pézenas ce lundi 19 août. L’occasion de faire le point sur les différentes affaires en cours.

Florian Grill was received by the leaders of the Stade Piscénois and talked with the leaders of around fifteen Hérault clubs, who came from Montpellier, Jacou, Pic Saint Loup, to Biterrois, Murviel-les-Béziers, and Vendres/Lespignan.

"I need to hear the truth from the field"

Introducing the discussion, the president immediately explained the reasons for his visit. “I come to meet the clubs because I need to hear the truth on the ground. It's a tour that I interrupted with the serious events of the summer for ten days and that I have just resumed while continuing to follow, of course, the evolution of these events”, he commented.

Regional rugby players were able to meet Florian Grill. Robert Rivière – Robert Rivière, correspondent.

For Florian Grill, it is essential to be transparent on these subjects and he addressed them first. “I believe that we must first of all think of the families, and in particular of the Narjissi family. I believe that our responsibility as a Federation is to have a duty of transparency, to never sweep the issue under the carpet and to deal with problems head on. I really want, regarding the tragedy of little Mehdi, for us to say exactly what happened and why a decision was made that could have led to going to a place that was not planned, and to clearly establish individual and collective responsibilities”.

Regarding the Jaminet case, the FFR president believes that it is now closed with the decision of the FFR disciplinary committee to suspend him for 34 weeks due to racist remarks.

“Rugby is a victim of the woes of society”

Florian Grill also returned to the Jegou-Auradou case. “We immediately affirmed that we had to listen to the complainant while defending absolute respect for the presumption of innocence of the two players, and trusting the Argentine justice system. I think we were not mistaken because the Argentine justice system is evolving, it has already released them and the case is moving forward,”, he explained.

Florian Grill at the club meeting. Robert Riviere. – Robert Rivière, correspondent.

He also responded to the concerns of those in charge of the clubs present, and believes that "rugby is a victim of the horrors of society. We can clearly see that drug and alcohol problems exist and rugby is not a separate world, protected from all that and therefore the clubs suffer from this state of affairs".

This is why he is more determined than ever to work for the development of grassroots rugby. "It's not me, since Marcoussis, who will develop rugby throughout France. I have undertaken real work to decentralize the Federation by giving more resources, 50% more which is considerable, to the regional leagues and departments. The development of rugby goes through schools, through villages and medium-sized towns, through improved facilities… There is not one big measure, there are lots of micromeasures which must help us develop rugby", he explained.