More damage than meets the eye has been done. The successful prosecution of Bernard Laporte for corruption is quite the punctuation mark just months before the Rugby World Cup is due to begin. The global game digesting criminal sanctions handed down to one of its most powerful figures in rugby is far from a flattering look.
Given what has taken place, a suspended jail sentence and five-figure fine on conviction of bribery charges in a Paris court on Tuesday, Laporte’s involvement in some of the biggest decision-making processes in world rugby over the last decade, like it or not, will be viewed through a different prism.
Although forming no part of the corruption probe, in his capacity as French Rugby Federation (FFR) president in 2017, Laporte pulled off a major upset to win France the rights to host next year’s Rugby World Cup.
Lauded for spearheading the bid, it took a considerable piece of gallic flair from “Le Professeur” to pull it off. But Laporte achieved his goal, despite an independent technical evaluation of the bids, including one from Ireland, naming South Africa as the preferred hosts.
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France was named the “surprise” winner following a secret World Rugby Council ballot in London, after which World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont was forced to defend the decision.
“A humiliation for me. I don’t think so. I don’t think that at all,” Beaumont told a media conference. “If you look there wasn’t a great deal between France and South Africa in the evaluation report. It was very close. We feel the process has been absolutely transparent.”
Voting members were not bound by the technical findings and it was the first time World Rugby had commissioned and made public such information. There was no precedent. However, as reported then, it was seen as an embarrassment as the process was adopted in the interests of transparency.
John Smit, who won the World Cup with the Springboks 10 years previously, made a mischievous post on Twitter. “That is devastating news, the joys of a secret ballot.”
Continuing with that theme, South Africa expressed disappointment over the decision and concluded that the process had become “opaque” following the independent report.
World Rugby won’t enjoy the position in which they find themselves as Laporte was also their vice-president and was central to the 2020 re-election of Beaumont. The former England captain, with Laporte’s backing, saw off the challenge of the popular young arriviste and former Argentina skipper Agustin Pichot.
In simple terms Pichot was the upstart wanting to make sweeping changes to the way the world game was run with Beaumont representing the old guard, a steady hand on the tiller. After the challenge failed by a narrow 28-23, Pichot was succeeded as World Rugby vice-president by Beaumont’s running mate Laporte.
While World Rugby are not directly implicated, the scandal pulls them closer to the global sporting contagion. With that, the game becomes an unwanted participant in the dreary procession of corrupted sport officials from football to boxing to the Olympic movement, a common theme their outright denial of wrongdoing. Opening envelopes was never so suspicious.
In the dock with the 58-year-old Laporte was Mohed Altrad, a one-time Syrian shepherd, who rose to become a construction billionaire and whose chequebook in rugby reaches both hemispheres.
Also given a suspended jail sentence and fine, Altrad owns French club Montpellier and sponsors the Western Force and New Zealand men’s and women’s national sides. A reported €73 million was paid for the naming rights partnership with the All Blacks.
In October the chief executive of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, Claude Atcher, was sacked from his position by tournament organisers following a suspension in August by France’s sports minister and former professional tennis player, Amelie Oudea-Castera, due to “alarming managerial practices”.
Atcher also stood trial on corruption charges as part of the prosecution’s case against Laporte. He was fined €4,720 for his role in the scandal.
While Laporte is suspended from his World Rugby positions for two years, he will also face investigation by the governing body’s recently appointed ethics officer, Neil Hallett.
But the destructive nature of the revelations are not just to the reputations of the individuals concerned but to the carefully-managed image of rugby.
The double-edged sword is the construct rugby sells to sponsors and advertisers as a game that holds core values. A sport for all, it remains true to its code, conduct and character of discipline, respect, integrity, passion and solidarity.
That image, those principles have been decades in the making and are a valuable part of a package that was minted before the game became a business. Part of rugby turned professional in 1995, another piece of it remained faithful to amateur sensibilities.
Venality, though, has a habit of tarnishing higher ideals. That is why fundamental beliefs can cut both ways. Rugby must behave differently to other sports or run the risk of regularly patching up the damage done by individuals who fall short.
That’s what the game buys into, a tightrope walk of old-fashioned values in a cash-soaked modern world. The thugs’ game played by gentlemen. A conceit dearly held and easily blemished.
Perhaps more than anyone looking in, Laporte, the thinking man’s rugby man, the French secretary for sport (2007-09) and for eight years coach of France will understand exactly how far this fall has been.
