Toulon boss takes IRB to court?

 

During the recent Rugby Championship, when Toulon suffered an early lull, Boudjellal made an outlandish demand that South Africans Bryan Habana, Bakkies Botha and Argentinean Juan Martin Fernandez-Lobbe return to club duty.

 

The CEO was not happy that he would have to pay his players while they were away representing their country stating: "I'm not here to fund South African and Argentine rugby."

 

At the time Boudjellal was of the opinion that French law usurped IRB regulations and now it seems he would like to challenge these regulation in court.

 

"We're in the process of speaking to our lawyers in Paris to see if we go to a commercial or administrative court," Boudjellal told French website Var Matin.

 

"The IRB rules have no provisions for unions to pay the clubs for their internationals. Yet the IRB is made up of the unions.

 

"Today, therefore it's the union who decide that it's up to the clubs to pay for the internationals. There is a clear abuse of power.

 

"They decide the rules while the clubs have no say in the decisions on the rules.

 

"It's as if tomorrow a trade union for employers decided to change the working condition of employees, without consulting the employees. It's not possible."

 

Boudjellal is hoping to set a precedent that has already occurred in other sports, that of giving a legal existence to rugby clubs.

 

"There has to be some fairness in this debate," he told Var Martin.

 

"The representatives of the employees should be involved. Like in football, rugby clubs need to have a legal existence on the global stage, to sit at the top table when it comes to decisions and the rugby calendar."

 

"Everyone is aware of the problem, it just takes some courage to do something about it," he said.

 

The French boss is not going into this alone, he goes on to state that he has the backing from others across the channel.

 

"On this procedure, I think when I turn around I'll see there are people behind me. I've spoken to the presidents of the English clubs and they were all behind me.

 

"I don't want to lead a revolution, just get the rules in line with today's reality.

 

"These absurd rules come from the amateur era where they didn't cause a problem because the players were barely paid and the national team represented a promotion and way of earning more money. But if we want rugby to move forward, we need to get up to date and realise it's 2014."