Widely re-elected to his post as president of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) on Saturday, Florian Grill, long a historic opponent of his predecessor Bernard Laporte, has made a name for himself by seeking to embody change within a federation always battered by business.
An atypical journey
After almost a year of mandate carried out in a certain serenity, the 59-year-old man, then little known to the general public, suddenly became a figure of French rugby last summer, shaken by dramas and affairs, from the The indictment of French XV players Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou for aggravated rape in Argentina following the disappearance by drowning of young U18 international Medhi Narjissi.
“It is only his mother who knows him”: it is this lapidary sentence that Laporte, with a rich career as a player, coach then coach of the XV of France, dismissed in 2019 with the wave of his hand. candidacy of Florian Grill, then head of the opposition list.
A native of Paris and a graduate of HEC, the man who ultimately lost the 2020 election to +Bernie+, does not in fact have the CV nor the notoriety of his running mates at the time, such as Serge Blanco, Jean-Claude Skrela, Fabien Pelous or Jean-Marc Lhermet, all former international players.
However, he is no stranger to the world of rugby. Amateur player with a solid build – “I’m a second line, I’m not the type to go around obstacles or hide behind my little finger”, he likes to repeat -, Grill, passed through the Paris Université Club , made all his classes in Ile-de-France rugby.
Founder of CoSpirit Groupe, a media consulting agency which employs 250 people, he returned to rugby after one of his sons registered with the Boulogne-Billancourt Athletic Club. Grill became an educator there, before taking over as president from 2009 to 2012.
A modern vision of rugby
In 2016, he ran for the first time in the federal elections on the list of outgoing Pierre Camou. The latter was largely defeated by Laporte, who took over as president, but Grill joined the steering committee. From 2017 to 2023, he also occupies the head of the newly created Ile-de-France Regional League.
At its head, he notably promotes the development of rugby 5, where the practice of touching rather than tackling makes it possible to be more inclusive and to welcome new audiences. A fight regularly put forward by Grill, who also wants to build on the success of the Olympic rugby sevens tournament, a discipline “less hermetic” than rugby union according to him.
A major challenge
“We are not really a global sport, we only really exist in a dozen nations,” insists Grill, who did not play in the usual strongholds of rugby in the south-west of France.
Not discouraged by his various failures at the FFR, the stubborn Grill regularly scrapes with Laporte. “I voted for 80% of the decisions,” he defends himself. “On the other hand, I had real pain and real refusals on 20% of the decisions, some of which relate to finances and ethics. And on which I had the merit of standing up to say no.”
The little-known opponent gains ground after the ouster of Laporte, convicted at first instance for corruption and forced to resign after intense pressure from the minister of sports at the time, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, described as close to Florian Grill by his critics.
In June 2023, after a campaign spent covering the territory, Florian Grill was elected president of the FFR to complete Laporte’s mandate, with the objective of straightening out an indebted federation, and restoring its image after the affairs that overtook his predecessor. A thankless and discreet task, worthy of a second line.
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