Rugby: Florian Grill under fire from the Oval Table

Florian Grill aux côtés de Bernard Bilhac, jeudi soir à Saint-André. JM – JM

This Thursday, December 5, World Volunteer Day, the President of the French Rugby Federation was the guest of honor at the Table Ovale in Saint-André-de-Sangonis. The leader gave a truthful speech to the Clermontais business circle.

The president of the French Rugby Federation is not one for wooden language. This Thursday evening, at the Château de Granoupiac, in Saint-André, between aperitif and dinner, the members of the Oval Table savored Florian Grill's* speech of truth. 2023 World Cup, ruined tour in Argentina, state of the FFR's finances, importance of the local pool, cocaine use in sport… The former second row never shied away from the heavy fire of questions from Bernard Bilhac, president of the Oval Table. He rather anticipated them, warning his host: “I'm going to do as I want”, he let slip to the laughter of the audience. He immediately insisted on the rural, local character of a sport that must be revived from the grassroots. “There are 14 French teams and 50% of the players in these teams come from towns and villages with fewer than 15,000 inhabitants. Once we have said that, we understand that rugby must not only exist in towns and large cities. The real fight for rugby is to fight so that rugby continues to exist in small clubs.” On the question of the post-match and the 3rd half, tarnished by the Argentinian episode, the president of the FFR gave his vision of the post-match and the supervision that must be put in place. “The third half is part of the magic of rugby. It should not be eliminated, but we must manage to regulate and manage things well. We must be vigilant. We do not only have a sporting responsibility. We have a responsibility as men and women. We must not send the kids into the wall”, the manager declared, arguing that before his arrival, “there was a slight tendency, for 40 years, to sweep the dust under the carpet a little. […].”

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“Cocaine kills, it's not festive at all”, Florian Grill

Lift the taboo, Florian Grill explained that he had “talked to the people at Provale*. When you have the figures for cocaine consumption, it scared me. I said to myself that we had to take the bull by the horns. Cocaine is endemic in the country, it's not rugby, it's all sports, society. Rugby is not impervious to society. It suffers the same torments. But the greatness of our sport is to face the underlying problems. To say yes, at the highest level: we need prevention, training, control, measurement and sanction”. The new reinforced performance plans are moving in this direction, for the highest level. ” And for small clubs ?, Bilhac asked. What are the means, the directives… To anticipate or stop the problem ? “. At the amateur level, regulation can intervene via the club's internal regulations, “secondly, if there are suspicions, proven cases, you should not hesitate to make reports” to the police or to “the French anti-doping agency”, specified Florian Grill. “There is a combination of words that I hate, it's “party cocaine”. Cocaine kills, it's not party-friendly at all. It's, perhaps, 70 or 80% of clubs are confronted with it, it has become endemic in society. We need to address these issues.” Bernard Bilhac then steered the debate towards the chronic deficit of the FFR.

The tribute to the commitment of the RCO

Florian Grill revealed the RCO ranking on the Committed Club Label which certifies clubs on their civic approach, inclusion, health-well-being and the Ecological Transition, feminization of sport. In total, 47 criteria are used to evaluate clubs. Out of 2,000 clubs listed in France, that of Cœur D’Hérault, which is playing at the top of its group in regional 3 (the last division of rugby), nevertheless figures very well in the Label since it is in 167th place. " I take my hat off to them ", greeted Florian Grill. A tribute that hit the mark on this December 5th, World Volunteer Day. ” What would France be without associations and volunteers ?”, asked Florian Grill…

“Financially, the situation is catastrophic”

“The budget of the Federation is around €130 million. The structural deficit is around €18 million. And the World Cup, which was said, before my election, would bring in €200 million, then €5 million… In the end, it lost €36 million. The situation, honestly, is catastrophic. I said during the campaign that we need to turn things around in three years but that we would do it “without imposing additional taxes” on the clubs. We are the second or first sport in the media but the 10th in terms of the number of licensees. We need to revive rugby from the grassroots,” diagnosed the president. A speech of truth that put the terroir, and amateur rugby, back at the center of the game.

Florian Grill became president of the FFR in June 2023 after the resignation of Bernard Laporte. He was re-elected in October 2024.

Provale: is the union of professional rugby players who play in France. It was created in 1998, the year rugby officially became professional in France.

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