Harrington column: Mayor bid by Mohed Altrad hit by third cap scandal

Billionaire Mohed Altrad is running to be mayor of Montpellier – a position which would mean giving up the presidency of the Top 14 side he has owned since 2011.

The pandemic-delayed second round of France‘s local elections take place on June 28 and Altrad, after finishing third in a tight first round of voting, is the longshot in a three-horse race for the city’s hotseat.

He has even named his possible club successor, a rapid promotion for newly-arrived sporting director Philippe Saint-Andre, in his first official rugby job since he quit as France coach after the 2015 World Cup.

So the last thing Altrad needs right now, days ahead of the ballot, is a scandal.

But, one may have blown up at the wrong time for him, politically, and at the wrong time for the club as players up their training ahead of an expected start of the new Top 14 season in early September.

Midi Olympique reported this month that the club was under investigation for breaching the Top 14’s €11.3m salary cap.

The twice-weekly rugby newspaper revealed that, in the weeks leading up to the coronavirus lockdown in France, Samuel Gauthier, the league’s salary cap manager, twice visited the club and spoke to a number of players – including Louis Picamoles, who was tempted back to France after one season in the English Premiership with Northampton.

Gauthier’s report was sent to the LNR and Montpellier at the beginning of June. The charges it contained were serious enough, Midi Olympique said, to necessitate the involvement of the LNR’s disciplinary committee.

Montpellier has been here before. This is the third time in recent years the club had been under investigation for breaches of salary cap regulations. The two previous times, fines were overturned on appeal.

Now, however, following a separate investigation, RMC Sport has claimed that the club ‘disguised’ the salaries of a number of players, notably those of a number of South African players, including Johan Goosen.

RMC said that Goosen’s salary at the club was €15,000 per month gross – way below market value.

The scandal, RMC says, takes in the whole sorry Goosen saga – from his sudden Racing 92 departure in December 2016 to his return to rugby, first very briefly with Cheetahs and then Montpellier from the start of the 2018-19 season.

The South African, then 24, was a matter of months into a long-term contract with the Racing 92, worth a reported €40,000 a month, and had just been hailed the Top 14 player of the previous season when he suddenly quit the club, announced his retirement from rugby, and took up a position as the commercial director of a stud farm near Bloemfontein.

At the time, his decision prompted an angry reaction from club president Jacky Lorenzetti. “Johan Goosen, whose contract was (extended) less than a year ago, now claims to be able to get rid of it in a fantastic way,” he raged in a statement.

But the club maintained that they would welcome him back, and were prepared to discuss any issues. Importantly, they never terminated his contract – in part because of France’s labyrinthine employment laws, which generally favour the employee, and also probably to ensure no other club could suddenly take him on without some form of recompense.

Meanwhile, rumours were swirling. Goosen, despite having retired, was caught on film training and word was that a mystery benefactor was willing to pay Racing in the region of €1.5m to release Goosen from his contract.

Few club owners – even in French rugby – have that kind of money to spare. You can count them on one hand and have fingers to spare. Altrad is one of them.

And so it turned out. Altrad was the mystery benefactor. Even before Goosen’s sudden departure from Racing, Altrad had wanted to bring the player to the south of France. He paid the money, triggered the release clause, and signed Goosen on a three-year deal from the start of the Top 14’s 2018/19 season – coincidentally allowing Racing to bring the ill-fated Pat Lambie, forced to retire in January 2019 due to concussion, to the club earlier than anticipated.

But RMC claims that Altrad was already paying Goosen – during his South Africa hiatus – via front companies in Hong Kong and Switzerland that bought his horses at inflated prices as part of a deal brokered by an agent to a number of players at the club.

According to RMC, a number of the club’s other high-status players’ salaries also appear to be below the expected market value.

Both the club and Altrad have so far refused to comment on the claims.

Goosen’s return to French club rugby has hardly been hitch-free. His first season was beset by injury, and his second – in which he made nine starts in 11 outings for the club – was cut short by the pandemic. He heads into the third and final year of his deal with this scandal hanging over his head, and much to prove.

Altrad, meanwhile, will hope that the allegations will not affect his political ambitions. Montpellier is a football rather than a rugby town, at least. These claims may only be a ripple.

JAMES HARRINGTON