After the Ministry of Sports, after the international federation, after the National Rugby League, after the opposition, it is the turn of the own Ethics Committee of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) to push for the departure of President Bernard Laporte, sentenced on Tuesday by the 32nd Chamber of the Criminal Court to a two-year suspended prison sentence and a two-year ban on any function in rugby for corruption, influence peddling, illegal taking of interests, abuse of corporate assets and concealment misuse of corporate assets. At the end of the deliberations, Mr. Laporte’s lawyer announced that his client was appealing, which suspends the sentences but does not cancel them, contrary to what the FFR wrote in one of its press releases.
After meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, the Ethics Committee of the FFR decided to notify, this Friday morning, by name to Mr. Laporte the injunction to leave office. The members of the Ethics Committee could either render an opinion, or advocate a recommendation, or issue an injunction. So they chose the third way, the firmer one.
The Ministry of Sports has been informed of this letter, as has the secretary general of the FFR. The Ethics Committee considers that it is all the easier for Mr. Laporte to step aside since he had taken care to create the position of Deputy Chairman, entrusted at the time to Serge Simon. If this injunction is not followed by effect, the Ethics Committee could seize the Disciplinary Commission of the FFR, which could consider a disciplinary sanction.