The French Rugby Federation (FFR) said on Friday that it was not worried about the holding of the preparation match for the World Cup-2023 of the XV of France against Australia on August 27 despite a financial dispute with the Wallabies around this encounter.
While the match, scheduled at the Stade de France, should be the last test of the Blues before the World Cup (September 8-October 28), the specialized bi-weekly Midi Olympique reported that the Australians would threaten not to play if a sum of The money that would have been promised to them for his outfit was not paid to them.
“We want to play this game. We are not worried. The Australians told us that there was an oral agreement that we paid them a million euros to come. We have no written record. There is no contract, there is nothing”, reacted to AFP the president of the FFR, Florian Grill, elected on June 14 at the head of French rugby.
According to him, the Australians have indeed “asked for a percentage on the TV rights”. But “we let them know, in writing, that the TV rights were shared by the Six Nations and that we had to see with them. We also reminded them that, during the Covid, we played three matches at home and that they had greatly benefited from it”, continued the French leader.
“Even if we have no trace, we told them that we were ready, if we did more than what was budgeted in our accounts, so more than 65,000 places (the Stade de France can contain around 79,000, editor’s note), to pay them 50% of the additional revenue, “said the boss of the FFR.
After having faced Scotland twice, the XV of France must still play against Fiji, Saturday in Nantes, then Australia in Saint-Denis. He will then launch the World Cup with a shock against New Zealand on September 8 before facing Uruguay, Namibia and Italy in the group stage.