Cyrille de la Morinerie with AFP, edited by Laura Laplaud
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6:17 p.m., August 30, 2022
The Rugby World Cup, scheduled in France from September 8 to October 28 and which is to begin with an XXL shock between the Blues and the All Blacks, will it take place with or without Atcher? It’s a thunderclap in the world of rugby. Just over a year from the start of the 2023 World Cup, the organizers of the event no longer have a boss. Claude Atcher, the director general of France 2023, was suspended on Monday due to his “alarming managerial practices”.
An investigation launched at the end of June
At the end of June, a labor inspection investigation was launched after an article in the sports daily The Team detailing a “deep social malaise” within the GIP (Public Interest Group) France-2023, the institution in charge of the organization of the World Cup led by Atcher.
In question, according to a report by the GIP ethics committee, “alarming managerial practices altering the functioning of the structure” and “the state of suffering of a certain number of collaborators”. The Ministry of Sports has therefore decided to lay off Claude Atcher “as a precaution with immediate effect, for the time necessary to close the investigation currently being carried out by the labor inspectorate”.
Replaced by Julien Collette
As a result, Atcher “will no longer be present or active, directly or indirectly, within, in the name and on behalf of the GIP throughout the period of the conservatory layoff”, indicates the press release from the Ministry of Sports. He will be temporarily replaced in his functions by the deputy director general of the GIP, Julien Collette.
This decision was taken in concert with the French Rugby Federation (FFR) and the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF), the two other shareholders of the 2023 World Cup organizing committee. The Federation “is fully associated with the action plan decided today in consultation with the Ministry of Sports and the President of GIP France-2023, Jacques Rivoal”.
For its part, World Rugby, the governing body of world rugby, told AFP that it “fully endorses the conclusions and the action plan communicated by the French Ministry of Sports today on the subject of the social climate within the France-2023 organizing committee”.
A second open investigation and trial
In addition, adds the press release from the Ministry of Sports, a second investigation has been opened: “a joint mission of the General Inspectorate of Finance and the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research was triggered by the State to, on the one hand, analyze the existence of possible breaches of economic and financial probity or conflicts of interest and, on the other hand, to support the GIP in the organization of some of its strategic programs “.
The former third line will also be judged from September 7 with the president of the FFR Bernard Laporte and the boss of the Montpellier club Mohed Altrad in the context of suspicions of favoritism around the sponsorship of the XV of France. He will appear for “concealment of breach of trust”, “abuse of corporate assets” and “concealed work by concealment of activity”. Just over a year from kick-off, the 2023 World Cup is faltering.