Back in the world of rugby as director of the Montpellier club, Bernard Laporte spoke on Sunday evening during the “Bartoli Time” program on RMC Sport. And the former president of the FFR, forced to resign after his conviction for corruption at first instance in the Laporte-Altrad trial – he appealed, suspending the sentences – has regained all his outspokenness.
Asked if his nomination was likely to raise eyebrows, “Bernie” replied: “My return annoys the idiots. But there are idiots everywhere and those don’t interest me.” And if that wasn’t clear enough, he gave it a second layer: “The jealous and the bitter, I don’t respond to them, and above all I don’t listen to them. It’s that simple.”
Bernard Laporte also recalled his legal situation. “There is a law in France. In France there is a presumption of innocence. I am convinced that I did nothing. There is justice and I will respect it but the presumption of innocence is the presumption of innocence. I am not prevented from coaching today, from working in professional rugby. I don’t see why anyone should blame me for anything as long as it’s legal.”
Finally, on the fact that he signed a three-year contract with the president of the MHR, Mohed Altrad, while the appeal trial is scheduled for early 2025, he did not argue. In the event of a final conviction on appeal? “I am banned from being president of the Federation. But of course I will be able to stay in post (in Montpellier),” he says. Statements which risk not pleading in his favor with the magistrates who will have to retry his case…