Integrated at the last moment in Fabien Galthié’s list to compete in the Rugby World Cup with the XV of France, will Bastien Chalureau be forced to leave his place? The second-line French replaced the player of South African origin Paul Willemse, injured, this Friday, but the Montpellier is caught up by his judicial past. The rugby player, then playing at Stade Toulouse, is suspected of having attacked two former players in January 2020 at the exit of a nightclub for racist reasons.
In November of the same year, Bastien Chalureau was sentenced by the Toulouse Criminal Court to a six-month suspended prison sentence for “acts of violence with the circumstance that these were committed because of race or ethnicity. of the victim”, before being laid off by the Toulouse club. The second line, who denies having uttered racist insults, says he has appealed according to the media.
“That the Minister of Sports asks the France team not to select him”
This affair, on which Pascal Praud reacted to the listeners of Europe 1 on Monday in the program Pascal Praud and you, therefore reappears a few days before the 2023 World Cup. And the Montpellier player has been increasingly singled out since his selection. “The first thing would have been for Fabien Galthié not to call him to the France team. Moreover, with my colleague deputy François Piquemal (LFI deputy for Haute-Garonne, editor’s note), we will seize the Minister of Sports tomorrow (Monday, editor’s note) so that she intervenes and asks the France team not to select him”, declared the elected LFI Thomas Portes at the microphone of RMC on Sunday.
A position that the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire does not share: “Let’s wait for the final conviction. Let’s not set ourselves up as a prosecutor in the place of justice”, he said on BFMTV on Sunday.
Oudéa-Castera advocates the presumption of innocence
Also this Sunday, the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, considered that “pending the final court decision, everyone must let justice do its job calmly, respecting the presumption of innocence”. “The minister was able to speak with Florian Grill, president of the French Rugby Federation, and with Raphaël Ibanez, general manager of the Blues, who confirmed to her that an exchange had taken place on the subject between Bastien Chalureau and the staff of the XV of France”, adds a press release from the ministry sent to AFP.
“The Minister was able to ensure” adds the press release, “that the player, who appealed his conviction at first instance, maintains his version of the facts and still formally denies having made racist remarks, which is why he proceeded to this call”.
‘Racism has no place in rugby,’ says World Rugby
If the case was mentioned by the Minister of Sports, it is also on the table of World Rugby. “Racism has no place in rugby”, warned Monday the director general of the international rugby federation, Alan Gilpin, about the controversy following the selection of Bastien Chalureau in the France team for the Coupe du Rugby. world.
“In France, there is a judicial principle, which is that of the presumption of innocence, which we must respect”, added the leader, insisting on the “values of inclusion” carried by the four-day rugby of the opening of the World Cup. Nothing says if the Montpellier will be well on the lawn Friday for the highly anticipated opening match between France and New Zealand.