With almost full stadiums in the ten cities hosting the World Cup matches, the authorities of French rugby can rub their hands. They hope that this tenth edition will be a financial and popular success which will turn the page on a very eventful year, with in particular the forced departure of Bernard Laporte, convicted of corruption.
Published on: 05/09/2023 – 07:10
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Barely installed in his duties as president of the French Rugby Federation, Florian Grill quickly put on a new costume, that of a firefighter. “We are trying to put out the fires,” he said on August 19, after learning belatedly of Australia’s financial claims to play a warm-up match at the Stade de France. The Australians had then just recalled that under an “oral agreement” with the former management of the FFR, they expected a significant retribution which had not been budgeted.
The new boss of French rugby called this discovery a “new bad surprise” which would weigh on an already difficult financial situation. “Our deficit is estimated at 20 million euros when we were told of 9 then 13”, specified Florian Grill, forced to coexist since his election on June 14, within the Steering Committee of the federation with several members of the former management team.
At its head was Bernard Laporte, forced to resign from office in January 2023 after being convicted of corruption. It was he who chaired the FFR when France obtained the award of the tenth World Cup in 2017. At the time, French rugby announced a deficit budget of around 7 million euros. And the opponent Florian Grill already denounced at the time a poor financial management of the authorities in place.
A significant financial windfall
If the balance sheets gave rise to major disputes between the two camps, there was consensus on one point: French rugby would be able to get back on its feet with the financial windfall of the 2023 World Cup. A loot initially estimated at 200 million euros by the director of the French candidacy, Claude Atcher. “We are potentially at 500 million euros in revenue. So, at least, 200 million euros in profits”, he said in 2017 in an interview with Figarobefore the awarding of the World Cup.
Six years later, this figure is no longer relevant, but the forecasts remain substantial. In June 2022, Claude Atcher mentioned in Les Echos “a profit of 68 million euros”, four months before being removed from office for “alarming managerial practices” within the Public Interest Group he headed. He claims to be the victim of a conspiracy and denies the accusations brought against him by employees of this entity responsible for organizing the World Cup.
His successor, Jacques Rivoal, has further revised this manna downwards. “Our reference is the 2015 World Cup in England, where the contexts are quite similar, or even 2007 in France. In both cases, we were around 36 million euros in results. We consolidated all the elements, all the legal entities: this leads us to present a consolidated result between 45 and 50 million euros”, he explained in February to the daily La Dépêche du Midi. Some expenses related to the organization of the competition had not been included in the first estimates, he said.
Full stadiums to see the Blues
This financial windfall, which stems largely from the sale of the 2.6 million tickets offered for the 48 matches, will allow the FFR to recover the funds advanced to the organizing committee of the World Cup. The rest should finance the development of the practice of rugby throughout the national territory. Valuable resources for President Grill, who will however have to face a new federal election at the end of 2024, the initial date of the end of Bernard Laporte’s mandate.
The FFR can even expect an even brighter future if the Blues win the first World Cup in their history on October 28. It should certainly pay a victory bonus to the players, who would be nearly 200,000 euros per world champion according to the Rugbyrama site. But the spinoffs would be much more lucrative in the long run. She has already been able to measure for four years the popular effect of the recovery of the France team, which has won 31 of its 39 matches. The Blues fill both the Stade de France and the provincial enclosures in which they have played. Their three preparation matches in Nantes, Saint-Étienne and Saint-Denis were thus full in August. The memory of a France-Fiji lost in November 2018 in Saint-Denis (14-21) in a half-empty stadium now seems far away.
French rugby is also delighted with the good health of its young people since the under-20s won a third consecutive world champion title in July 2023. And if the French women’s team has not won a title this season, it is also attracting a growing audience, as shown by the attendance record (18,604 spectators) established during a match against Wales in Grenoble as part of the last Six Nations Tournament. The French teams shine and the FFR has stars in their eyes.
