Dear Mohed,
I carefully read your interview published by Midi Olympique. With reference to one of your remarks that makes the title of the interview, I first say that I have not read or heard anyone call you bastard. As far as I am concerned, I have a real admiration for the entrepreneur that you are (and I am not the only one!) And for the club leader you are (we may be fewer!).
Finally, I do not doubt the sincerity of President Laporte's disinterested commitment to rugby, so I would like us to talk as quickly as possible about the game and the sport we all love.
So if I take the pen, it is not to fuel the controversy over the current case on which I have a moderate vision, but because in the second part of your talk you make a parallel between the involvement of Serge Kampf for rugby and your own commitment: I find this unworthy and inappropriate. Serge had a very different approach to yours, which did not detract from the merit of your actions: he acted as a disinterested patron and most often anonymous and not as an investor. Everyone knows what the Grenoble and Biarritz and Barbarians clubs owe him, without ever having asked for anything in return: no special requirement, no contract, no role in the organizational chart of the club and a total autonomy left to the leaders of these structures. People know less about all the other clubs that he helped to avoid filing for bankruptcy, by signing a check, without asking if it is not to advertise! (I know at least two clubs in this case). People also do not know the number of players he has accompanied and helped at key moments in their professional conversion (I know at least 5), always without asking anything in return, just out of friendship.
So please do not instrumentalize Serge's name in your media counter-fire strategy. Refrain from respect for the memory of this great gentleman.
Sincerely,
Eric Pilaud
Auteur : FCG Rugby