Top 14 – File. “We don’t really know who runs the club”: crisis at Stade Français, shattered leadership and plummeting results

The observation is terrible: in six months, Stade Français went from semi-finalist of the Top 14 to candidate for the access match. A dizzying decline that the main players in the capital club did not expect. However, the internal struggles which plague the daily life of the Parisian club should have raised alarm. Remember. Despite positive results which allowed the Parisian club to be in the lead for almost the entirety of last season, tensions had emerged. First, between Karim Ghezal, then head coach, and some of the players. Then, between the same Ghezal and the Director of Rugby Laurent Labit. So much so that during the off-season, the former specialist on the sidelines of the XV of France had seen his prerogatives reduced, Labit deciding to return to the field and regain control of the offensive play of his team, to the detriment of Morgan Parra, a close friend of Ghezal. An untenable situation. After four days and three defeats, Ghezal was dismissed following a setback in Pau (30-16). “There were on one side people supporting Karim and on the other, people supporting LaurentHans-Peter Wild, the president, will justify himself a little later. These small groups were unbearable. A team can only play well if it is truly united.” Three weeks later, after another heavy setback at Castres (35-13, 7^e day) and in this still tense context, this time it was the General Director Thomas Lombard who, according to our information, proposed his resignation to Doctor Wild, who refused it. The Swiss billionaire even confirmed this (read elsewhere).

Lombard offered his resignation, Wild refused it

However, the results have not changed significantly since these episodes. On the contrary. If the Parisians were capable of some flashes, the successes over Clermont (36-6, 8^e day of Top 14) or Northampton (45-35, 3^e day of champions Cup) testify, they seem to carry with them a persistent malaise. Many players question the leadership within the club. At the end of October, the day after the success in Clermont, the president-owner Hans-Peter Wild caused a little more trouble. “The players know it: from now on, the athlete's boss is Paul Gustard, announced the billionaire in these columns. He's an intelligent, honest, reliable, competent guy and a fine psychologist.” What about Laurent Labit then? “He is in support of Paulreplied the businessman. They both work well together.” More precisely, they try to do it, as best they can. Learning of his “downgrade” in the press, Fabien Galthié's former deputy with the XV of France had a very bad time during this period. Logical, obviously logical. But as paradoxical as it may seem, the English technician reinforced by Wild, Labit has still, in fact, retained leadership of the staff. “Frankly, we don't understand anything anymore, comments a player, adding: We don't really know who runs the club.”

Three staff members received a warning

On a daily basis, this staff gives the impression more of cohabiting than of collaborating. And for good reason. How can we ignore the many past tensions? At the start of last season, Morgan Parra had a heated verbal altercation with Paul Gustard. The same Parra learned through the press at the start of the season of the arrival of Philippe Doussy, as consultant for kicking, a sector for which he had been responsible until then. Recently, three members of the staff (the team manager, a physiotherapist and a doctor) were given a warning for going out the day before the match against Munster in the Champions Cup. So many elements which symbolize disunity. This is why at the end of the beating inflicted by the UBB (19-46) during the last day of Top 14, the General Director Thomas Lombard brought together, in an improvised format, the entire staff in the presidential box . A single watchword: “ignore disagreements to save the institution.”