While the French team has been meeting in Marcoussis since Sunday evening to prepare for the first match of the fall tour against Japan (on the 9th, 9:10 p.m. at the Stade de France), the French Rugby Federation and its coach Fabien Galthié have presented to the Blues “the reinforced performance project for French rugby”. This concerns in particular the new living environment to be respected for internationals following the abuses that occurred this summer. A 29-page document which proposes “20 concrete actions and 28 measures aimed at transforming rugby”. With the key being sanctions for those who step outside the framework.
The genesis
Following the extra-sporting concerns which marred the summer of the French team with the so-called “Jaminet” cases (author of racist remarks, he was suspended for 34 weeks) and “Auradou-Jegou” (indicted for violent rape, their request for dismissal has still not been judged) during the tour in Argentina, but also the night trips during the World Cup in France where two tricolors briefly came to blows, the French Rugby Federation convened the States General, the first session of which was held on August 29.
All families of French rugby were represented there: amateur world, professional clubs, unions, staff of the French teams, etc. It was agreed “the urgency to act” et “a duty to tell the truth about the state of French rugby” as specified in the 29-page document, entitled “a performance project for rugby” and in which Florian Grill, the president of the FFR, recalls in the preamble: “Behavioral abuses on an extra-sporting level require us to question ourselves and rethink our modes of operation and our means of action. There is no longer any question, on the subject of these abuses, of sweeping the dust under the carpet or hiding behind one’s little finger. The future of our sport depends on it. »
The method
To develop this “performance project” and above all the new living environment that the 14 French teams and the entire access to high level will have to respect, the French Rugby Federation has been working hard for two months. President Florian Grill, freshly re-elected on October 19, and the Federal Office, with the amateur world, but also the General Director Jérémie Lecha and the vice-president in charge of high level Jean-Marc Lhermet conducted more than 50 interviews with players in professional and high-level rugby in France and internationally throughout the month of September.
The 20 actions
They were divided into three categories (prevention, organization, evaluation and sanctions).
Preventive measures:
– Strengthen the links between players of the French teams and amateur clubs engaged in civic actions, in the spirit of the Missionary Federation.
– Anchor the role of example of players, thanks to testimonies around the responsibility of wearing the blue jersey.
– Require French teams and their management to participate in training/prevention workshops and verify what they have learned.
– Strengthen within APERs, training centers and clubs, the prevention approach around addictions and risks surrounding high-level sports activity.
– Set up an anonymized mental health monitoring program for French teams and their management.
– Ensure that team cohesion is developed without alcoholic evenings.
– Work with the National Rugby League and the clubs on making players from the French men’s XV available to intervene occasionally with the French youth teams.
– Mobilize former players of the French XV as “godfathers” of the French youth teams.
– Implement a system of integration and peer support for new arrivals within the French teams.
– Specify the role and missions of the French team staff, prior to their appointment.
Organizational measures:
– Prohibit staff and players of the French team from consuming alcohol in certain circumstances such as performance venues.
– Ban all entertainment based on alcohol consumption within national teams.
– Formalize the responsibility of team managers for respecting the living environment.
– Restrict the reception of people from outside the official delegation or their families to the common areas of the French team accommodation sites.
– Organize end-of-competition evenings in privatized locations which will benefit from appropriate security.
– Allow companions of members of the French teams to come punctually thanks to adapted room reservation logistics.
Disciplinary measures:
– Formalize a Charter of Commitment for all members of the French teams, to be signed at least once per season.
– Establish a clear and transparent sanctions protocol and decision-making mechanism for members of the French teams who do not respect the defined rules.
– Index bonuses to individual and collective behavior.
– Establish internal regulations allowing the French Rugby Federation to occasionally carry out tests on the use of narcotics and alcohol consumption.
Each of the 20 « actions » was divided into “under action” with each time one or more “target objective(s)” where the words “accountability”, “exemplarity” have a stronghold in order to avoid above all “risky behaviors” et “preserve the image of rugby and the FFR”.
